Here’s a discussion on global climate change featuring California-based venture capitalist Dan Miller, who apparently has some connections local to me. Dan spoke last week at The Midland School, a wonderful private school at which both my kids, Jake and Valerie, attended a summer “Writers’ Camp” a few years ago. I had to bribe them both in the extreme, offering them both their first cell phones to attend, but I’m glad I made the compromise. The camp was wonderful. And Dan’s talk is fantastic.
Here’s the follow-up to my discussion with friends who claim to have observed a violation of the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Of course, I get claims like this at the rate of at least once a week, and I pay very little attention to them. What makes this interesting is that one of them is a professional mechanical engineer, and they’re both well-educated people.
Friend #1: Craig, please read “Unobservable Universe.” It’ll give you a different perspective on physics and your laws of thermodynamics. (more…)
I get a bit puckish in my writings in the evening, perhaps because I typically have a martini as I make dinner for the Shields family.
Here, I respond to a friend who claims to have observed an engineering breakthrough by which an adjustment in a permanent-magnet motor creates a scenario in which the rotor does not slow down, even with a load applied to it, as it’s able to draw energy from the magnets. I’m reminded of other friends who wish me to create a device that taps the energy in gravitation, or other phenomena that don’t contain energy. I write:
M. Mayer writes a longer comment from which I excerpt:
Judging the risks (associated with a certain energy technology) is hard because it’s about making guesses about the unknown. … In a way it’s easier to predict that the sun will continue to shine than to predict that nuclear power won’t fall from grace.
Your point about the risk of nuclear falling from grace is an interesting one. I’m sure there are some fascinating discussions going on about the decisions being made in Japan, Germany, Italy, etc. And yes, there is the growing voice of the anti-nuke movement generally. (more…)
Craig Shields’ Second Book on Renewable Energy Launched: If you ever get the opportunity, have a conversation with Craig Shields. He’d previously written a great book on renewable energy, and just had his second book released on March 15, Is Renewable Really Doable? Exploring Clean Energy’s Opportunities and Tough Realities. (more…)
Here’s top climate scientist Dr. James Hansen on global climate change. When people ask where I stand on this subject and why, I simply request that they watch this; I sure wish I had it in my power to get everyone to do so.
Not only are we doing nothing to stop this unfolding catastrophe, we’re actively making it worse, subsidizing the fossil fuel industries worldwide with hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Why? Big Energy wants it that way, and has spent a fortune to convince voters that putting a tax on carbon to curb our dependence on fossil fuels will hurt the economy. (more…)
I’ve known 2GreenEnergy reader Joe for several years now, and he’s never ceased to amaze me with his insights as a political philosopher and social critic. We hadn’t corresponded for a while, but he wrote me after having bought my book on its launch day — something for which I was quite grateful, as to whatever degree, the incremental purchase heightened the overall status of 2GreenEnergy and all we’re trying to do here.
Our conversation:
Craig: Thanks, Joe. Glad you’re still reading my stuff. I admire you.
Joe: Maybe I should be writing books instead of self-destructing as a farmer/engineer. Enjoy the weather.
Craig: Ha! We’ll, anyone with a mind like yours should most certainly be using it in every way possible. The world needs you.
I attend conferences, either as a speaker or a participant, when I can add them conveniently to my travel schedule. Here is my “bible” – ConferenceAlerts/Energy, which is, as far as I’m aware, the most comprehensive listing of energy conferences around the world. We’re more than halfway through March, and there are still well over 50 energy conferences scheduled, somewhere on the surface of the globe, between now and the first of April. This is an average of four per day; the 26th and 27th each have seven. (more…)
I’m in the process of becoming a partner in an aeroponics company called Tower Harvest; I’ll have a video up on this shortly. I’m thrilled for the association with these people, in particular with CEO Rafael Quezada; he’s incredibly knowledgeable in this arena, and deeply committed to locally grown, organic, high-yield, yet low-cost farming.
When I think about how to address the business challenges the company faces, I’m reminded of a great number of experiences I’ve had over the last 30 years as a marketing consultant in which my clients had products or services in emerging categories. The quandary is this: How do we avoid spending our resources promoting the category, but rather allocating them to promoting our specific solution within that category? (more…)
One of the things I like most about my friends at Eos Energy Storage is the cleverness and sense of humor of their writing. In their website’s piece about the need for storage on our grid, they quip, “Sushi has better storage.” I.e., even though the electricity market is the single largest supply chain on the planet, it is the only supply chain in the world that has almost no storage at all.
They write:
Every commodity in the world—oil, gas, coal, grain, manufactured goods, textiles, everything—has storage to enhance the efficiency of the supply chain. Even sushi, which like electricity basically needs to be consumed as soon as it is produced, has storage in its supply chain. Imagine how difficult it would be to get good Japanese food if there had to be a handy fisherman standing by to jump in a boat and catch a tuna every time we ordered maguro sushi.
Yet that is how we run our electricity grid. As a result, the grid is massively overbuilt to accommodate the few hours each year that we reach peak demand. In the US, 25% of all distribution assets and 10% of all transmission and generation capacity is used less than 400 hours each year.
That’s sure something to think about as we continue our discussions on smart-grid. Sure we can use advanced IT to create better efficiencies in the way we generate, transmit, and distribute electricity. And yes, the two-way flow of information to and from the consumer is an even greater potential benefit from smart-grid. But as long as we need to consume the electricity we’re generating that very moment, we’re doomed to this hopeless overbuilt and super-expensive infrastructure.
I get a bit puckish in my writings in the evening, perhaps because I typically have a martini as I make dinner for the Shields family.
I attend conferences, either as a speaker or a participant, when I can add them conveniently to my travel schedule. Here is my “bible” – 
