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Please Do NOT Buy My Book (Today)

craigshieldsPosted on March 1, 2012 Posted in Renewables - Business

Obviously, I’m hoping you’ll want to buy my new book, Is Renewable Really Doable? – on its official launch day, March 15th.

But not today.

The 15th is the magic date when I’m offering a one-day-only bonus — a hot new report currently for sale at $59.95 (“Insights in LCOE – The Levelized Cost of Energy,” by industry analyst Mike Hess) – absolutely free – when you buy one or more copies of my book from Amazon.com.

The 15th is the time to act, for anyone who’s ever wondered: (more…)

Tagged with: book on renewable energy, clean energy venture capitalists, credit crunch, end of cheap oil, Insights in LCOE – The Levelized Cost of Energy, Is Renewable Really Doable, March 15th, Mike Hess, world’s biggest governments and the adoption of clean energy

U.S. Army Embracing Clean Energy in a Big Way

craigshieldsPosted on March 1, 2012 Posted in Renewables - Business

In this fascinating presentation, we can see the U.S. Army changing its culture vis-à-vis energy. “Every soldier is a power manager.” Wow!

Tagged with: alternative energy, clean energy, embracing clean energy, green energy, Renewable Energy, U.S. Army

Thanks to Stephan A. Schwartz For His Contribution to “Is Renewable Really Doable?”

craigshieldsPosted on March 1, 2012 Posted in Renewables - Science

For those who may want a perspective on the migration to renewable energy that you’re extremely unlikely to find elsewhere, I present to you Stephan A. Schwartz, whose life has been spent exploring extraordinary human functioning, and how individuals and small groups can affect, and have affected, social change.

His work in parapsychology, archaeology, anthropology, medicine and healing, creativity, and social policy pair nicely with the questions I ask myself a great deal: What’s really going on behind the scenes when it comes to social phenomena? (more…)

Tagged with: anthropology, archaeology, creativity, extraordinary human functioning, human consciousness, Is Renewable Really Doable, medicine and healing, parapsychology, social change, social phenomena, social policy, Stephan A. Schwartz

Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation Leads the Way in OTEC

craigshieldsPosted on March 1, 2012 Posted in Ocean Thermal

As the name suggests, Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation, which I visited on my last trip back to the East Coast, is one of the leaders in the development of OTEC (ocean thermal energy conversion), a technology with huge potential to change the world energy picture. Best of all, these folks, while they’re true business professionals and leading scientists, are acutely aware of the environmental benefits at stake here. More than one billion people live in the tropics, close to oceans that store vast amounts of energy in their warm surface waters that can be cleanly converted to electricity, or used in desalination, providing potable drinking water to large and growing populations where this commodity is scarce. (more…)

Tagged with: alternative energy, Amy Maddox, clean energy, desalination, Ed Rendell, energy in oceans’ warm surface waters, environmental benefits, green energy, grid mix, ocean thermal energy conversion, Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation, OTEC, OTECorporation, potable drinking water, Renewable Energy, Renewable Energy Finance Forum, Underneath We’re All the Same

Religion and Energy Policy

craigshieldsPosted on February 29, 2012 Posted in Renewables - Science

Earlier today we had a very interesting guest-post on Religion and Renewable Energy, in which the author, Brian McGowan, begins:

Recently the subject of religion has come up several times. I try not to discuss it but it keeps coming up and it is hard to avoid.

I respond:

Thanks for this very interesting post. Yes, I try to avoid the subject as well, for fear of coming off as disrespectful to people’s beliefs. Having said that, someone needs to say something when we have elected representatives using a religious platform from which to make important decisions that fly in the teeth of science. For example, last year, Illinois Congressman John Shimkus, (more…)

Tagged with: energy policy, House Committee on Energy and Commerce, John Shimkus, religion

Carnegie Mellon University Studies Electric Transportation

craigshieldsPosted on February 29, 2012 Posted in Electric Vehicles

Glenn Doty points out a flaw in my recent piece about electric transportation. He writes:

(The Carnegie Mellon University study) assumes a life-cycle grid emissions profile of 615 g-CO2E/kWh. That is blatant BS.

The impact of new marginal electricity demand (as represented by shifting transportation demand from liquid fuel to electricity) can only be satisfied by spare generating capacity. There is no renewable spare capacity in most of the country, and in the places where there is spare capacity (TX, IA, MN, ND, IL…) there is no benefit to be had from a constant 8+ hour nighttime demand increase, as the spare renewable capacity in these cases is curtailed wind, and the constant 8+ hour night-time demand would be satisfied by not tamping down baseload power as much each night. (more…)

Tagged with: 230 million cars and trucks, average grid energy, Carnegie Mellon University, cheap abundant oil, electric transportation, EV consumer value proposition, fossil energy, fossil fuels, Glenn Doty, gooey and toxic tar sands, grid parity, methane emissions, upstream emissions, wars over oil, wellhead and distribution leaks

From Guest Blogger Brian McGowan: Religion and Renewable Energy

craigshieldsPosted on February 29, 2012 Posted in Renewables - Science

Recently the subject of religion has come up several times. I try not to discuss it but it keeps coming up and it is hard to avoid.

There was a short blog entitled ”Doing the Right Thing About Climate Change – Regardless of Our Religious Beliefs” and also part two of Craig’s series “3 Brass Tacks” where Wally Rippel stated “A great deal of the evangelical world works against environmental friendliness. They seem to see fossil fuels as their allies and ecologically sound solutions as their enemies. I don’t see this as consistant with the idea that all we see around us was the creation of a loving God.” (more…)

Tagged with: Religion and Renewable Energy

Making Clean Energy Incentives Permanent

craigshieldsPosted on February 29, 2012 Posted in Renewables - Politics

Hey – is there a glimmer of hope that some level of sanity may come to the process of energy policy-making in Washington D.C.? I’ve often written about the folly of incentives for renewable energy that come and go, fluctuating with the volatility of women’s hem lines. There’s talk – and that’s about it, but it’s a start – of making clean energy incentives permanent.

Tagged with: Making Clean Energy Incentives Permanent

Thanks to Woody Clark, Ph.D., For His Contribution to “Is Renewable Really Doable?”

craigshieldsPosted on February 29, 2012 Posted in Renewables - Business

Woody Clark is another of these supremely visible figures who is impossible to miss when one attends industry conferences. He has a warm, approachable – and often hilariously funny speaking style that belies the depth of his understanding of complex, multi-disciplinary issues.

Woody is an applied academician, a long-time advocate for the environment and renewable energy, and an internationally recognized author, lecturer and advisor on sustainable communities. He was a contributing scientist on the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UNIPCC) that won the Nobel Peace Prize in December, 2007.

I am very grateful to Dr. Clark for his help with the project, and I know readers will find his insights quite enlightening.

Tagged with: Is Renewable Really Doable, Nobel Peace Prize, United Nations Intergovernmental Panel Climate Change (UNIPCC), Woody Clark

Book Launch: “Is Renewable Really Doable?”

craigshieldsPosted on February 29, 2012 Posted in Renewables - Business

It’s time to launch my second book, Is Renewable Really Doable? on Amazon.com. The big day: March 15, 2012. I hope you will mark your calendar, and buy the book on that date.

To help generate interest in the subject, we have a giveaway: a hot new report called “Insights in LCOE – The Levelized Cost of Energy,” by industry analyst Mike Hess.

Before our society can decide on a certain course for its energy policy, we need to ask ourselves a central question: What Does It Cost?

Here’s a 32-page study, dealing with tough questions about land use, externalities, the safety of fracking, food and water shortages, climate change, transmission rights, smart-grid, efficiency, conservation, consumer incentives, carbon taxes, energy storage, health hazards, feed-in tariffs, subsidies – you name it. (more…)

Tagged with: Amazon.com, book launch, carbon taxes, Climate Change, conservation, consumer incentives, credit crunch, efficiency, end of cheap oil, energy storage, externalities, feed-in tariffs, food and water shortages, governments accelerate and retard clean energy, health hazards, Insights in LCOE – The Levelized Cost of Energy, Is Renewable Really Doable, land use, March 15 2012, Mike Hess, oil subsidies, scientific community unbiased, smart grid, the safety of fracking, transmission rights, venture capitalists clean energy