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Plug-In Hybrids: Now THAT’S Complexity

craigshieldsPosted on April 11, 2012 Posted in Electric Vehicles

Here’s a wonderful video that explains the multiple drivetrains at work in the Chevy Volt. A couple of immediate impressions:

1) No wonder the price on this sucker is $41K, with all that going on. The bill of materials (costs of the individual components) must be enough to choke a horse. And the non-recurring engineering costs must have been staggering.

2) This further amplifies my belief that plug-in hybrids really are not the answer to transportation. It’s like using an elephant gun to kill mice. Electric transportation will succeed when we get the price, energy density, and power density of batteries into an acceptable range – and, of course, when we can get enough renewable energy on the grid that we’re not charging them with coal.

So when will this happen? The question is political will. If we rely 100% on market forces, especially while we continue to subsidize fossil fuels, it could be A Long Way to Tipperary.

Tagged with: battery energy density, battery power density, battery price, Chevy Volt, coal-fired power plants, electric transportation, Electric Vehicles, EVs, plug-in hybrids, Renewable Energy, subsidizing fossil fuels

Frontline on PBS: Nuclear Aftershocks

craigshieldsPosted on April 11, 2012 Posted in Nuclear

I hope everyone gets the opportunity to catch this episode of Frontline on PBS: Nuclear Aftershocks — one that essentially claims that nuclear energy is both unacceptably dangerous but completely necessary. I’m reminded of the way Amory Lovins begins his current-day presentations: “Which would you rather die from? Nuclear holocaust, drowning from rising sea levels, respiratory disease, or terrorist attacks and social chaos from the demand for increasingly scarce oil?” I have to admit; it’s a great way to capture an audience’s attention.

“Aftershocks” did a great deal to explore the dangers of nuclear energy (more…)

Tagged with: alternative energy, clean energy, Frontline on PBS: Nuclear Aftershocks, green energy, nuclear energy, nuclear power, Renewable Energy

A Fair Approach to Taxation Will Have Broad Social Benefits

craigshieldsPosted on April 10, 2012 Posted in Sustainability

It’s hard to know what will come of Warren Buffett’s plea for a more just approach to taxation here in the U.S. He certainly did grab the world’s attention a few years ago in his now-famous “Tax Me!” op-ed, in which he pointed out that his own effective federal tax rate was about 17 percent, as contrasted to that of his secretary, which was about 30 percent. To his credit, he made many millions of us aware of the fact tax breaks allow the richest Americans to avoid paying their fair share of personal income tax.

While we’re watching the action in Washington, D.C., here’s a report on corporate tax-payers and tax-dodgers that you may find interesting.

Tagged with: corporate tax-dodgers, corporate tax-payers, D.C., fair approach to taxation, Tax Me! op-ed, Warren Buffett, Washington

How Clean Is Nuclear Power?

craigshieldsPosted on April 10, 2012 Posted in Nuclear

True to form, Glenn Doty writes a thorough and quite helpful comment on my piece about measuring the increase in the use of renewable energy. He closes with two ideas on which I would like to comment in return:

1) Of course, natural gas is far better than coal, and slightly worse than nuclear.

Personally, I think it’s impossible to put nuclear on a scale of “goodness” or “badness,” because we are incapable of knowing its implications to our health and safety. I’ll go out on a limb here and guess you haven’t polled the people living around Fukushima, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island. And what might the future bring? More operational disasters? Catastrophes with handling nuclear waste? Rogue states with small dirty nuclear weapons? It’s impossible to predict, but it can’t be good.

2) At least coal power is plummeting. That’s good any way you wish to calculate anything.

Amen, my friend.

Tagged with: Chernobyl, coal power is plummeting, coal-fired power plants, Fukushima, Glenn Doty, handling nuclear waste, How Clean Is Nuclear Power?, measuring increase in renewable energy, natural gas, nuclear power, operational nuclear disasters, rogue states with small dirty nuclear weapons, three mile island

Solar-Hydrogen Powered-House

craigshieldsPosted on April 10, 2012 Posted in Photovoltaics

A friend asks:

Out of curiosity, did you ever hear of Mike Strizky and his purely hydrogen powered house in Hopewell, NJ?

No, that’s cool. Actually, of course, the power is coming from the solar PV; it’s stored in the hydrogen. Personally, I’m not too great a fan of hydrogen. I think that batteries will soon prove affordable, especially as the scale at which they’ll be used in electric transportation and utility-scale storage will drive further cost reductions. I hasten to add that not everyone agrees with me on this.

Hydrogen fuel cells have significant efficiency limits that (I believe) are impossible to cross, since the migration of the ion through the electrolyte produces heat.

Take a COOL Guess – the Fun Quiz on Clean Energy. Today’s Topic: Environmental Regulation

craigshieldsPosted on April 10, 2012 Posted in Sustainability

Question: Are there cases in human history in which changes made in environmental regulation have made a dramatic and measurable positive difference?

Answer: Can be found at http://2greenenergy.com/cool-guess-answers/8732.

Relevance: Perhaps too many believe that man’s continuing assault against the natural environment is a given, and that attempts to correct this are hopeless. That’s certainly not the case.

Tagged with: environmental regulation, man's continuing assault against the natural environment, quiz on clean energy, take a cool guess

Natural Systems — What We Know and What We Don’t

craigshieldsPosted on April 10, 2012 Posted in Sustainability

It’s the birthday author Paul Theroux who said: “Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, and travelers don’t know where they’re going.”

If I may be permitted a liberty here, I would say that perhaps there’s an analogy here to where we’re going with respect to the environment. (more…)

Tagged with: concentration of CO2, concentration of methane, ecological negative feedback loops, ecological self-correction, environmental damage, global temperatures rising, greenhouse gasses, melting permafrost, natural systems, release of methane, sea levels 45 feet higher than they are today, sea levels rising

The Strengths and Weaknesses of Hydrokinetics

craigshieldsPosted on April 10, 2012 Posted in Hydrokinetics

Here’s a continuation in our series of videos made for young people and newcomers to the subject who may benefit from an introduction to certain of the renewable energy technologies. This piece, less than five minutes in length, is a primer on hydrokenetics, i.e., extracting energy from moving water.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76e8voDgI6U]

Tagged with: alternative energy, clean energy, environmentalism, extracting energy from moving water, green energy, hydroelectric dams, hydrokenetics, hydrokinetic energy, hydrokinetic power, intro videos on renewable energy, introduction to renewable energy, Renewable Energy, run-of-river hydro, sustainability

Is Renewable Energy Growing Stronger? It Depends on How You Look At It

craigshieldsPosted on April 9, 2012 Posted in Renewables - Business

EVWorld has a wonderfully encouraging article on renewables that begins:

Pop quiz time. The fastest growing energy sector in terms of percentage of growth in the United States between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2011 was: A) natural gas, B) nuclear power, C) renewable energy?

The answer is C, renewable energy (RE) by a huge margin. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA), RE grew by 27.12%. That includes biofuels, biomass, geothermal, solar, water, and wind. By comparison, natural gas production increased 13.66%, while crude oil grew 14.27%. Nuclear power, in contrast, shrunk 1.99% and coal dropped 7.16%.

All true, but one can find different facts that would support a different conclusion. E.g., under 5% of the U.S. grid mix is renewable energy (if you don’t count hydroelectric dams), so talking about percent growth of this small number may not be the most relevant stat.

Tagged with: biofuels, biomass, crude oil, EIA, encouraging article on renewables, EVWorld, fastest growing energy sector, geothermal, natural gas, nuclear power, Renewable Energy, renewable energy growing, renewables, solar, U.S. Energy Information Agency, water, Wind Energy

Coda: the EV with a “Consumer Value Proposition” from Hell

craigshieldsPosted on April 9, 2012 Posted in Electric Vehicles

EVWorld covered the electric vehicle start-up Coda in its weekly newsletter, pointing out that the car lacks certain features that are standard in other EVs.

The fact that Coda is still around amazes me. Coda offers a “consumer value proposition” from hell (and it’s this concept that I believe to be at the forefront of the entire EV adoption curve). Here, you have an expensive, unattractive, low-quality car sold by a company whose continued existence (required if its warranty is to have any value) is at best questionable.

I simply can’t imagine who’s going to find that appealing.

If that company succeeds, it will show that I really have no idea what I’m talking about in this space, so you’ll want to discount every word I say. 🙂

Tagged with: Coda, consumer value proposition, Electric Vehicles, EVs