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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

This article, I hope, will set the tone for a series of others that will follow by revealing the origins of the petroleum industry in the United States. The main objective of these pieces is to provide the reader with a historical notion of shocks in the oil business in order to better understand the background of fluctuations in petroleum prices. Later on, other writings will cover more recent material on the subject and a final piece will offer the reader my predictions of what the future of oil prices might look like in the short, medium and long term.

The task at hand is ambitious, but its significance is enormous. Everyone feels a pinch when the prices at the pump crawl higher and higher with no end in sight. History has repeatedly proven to be the best thing we have to go on and in doing so, we will establish a solid foundation from which we will make an educated guess about the future of the oil industry as a whole and what it means for civilization.

THE FULL ARTICLE WILL BE AVAILABLE ON: December-19-2011

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Does anyone know how many kilowatt-hours we in the U.S. dump back to ground each night? If so, please comment, and add a link to the source. Cycling coal plants shortens their lives and adds to the cost of maintenance, and is therefore unappealing. But I’m having the devil’s own time coming up with this datum.

The use of off-peak power is directly relevant to the case for EVs. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

My team at 2GreenEnergy and I are having fun with these infographics on energy, and I think they serve a useful purpose in presenting a few of the basics on the subject of clean energy at a high level – appropriate even for relative newcomers to the subject.  If you have a spare minute or two, I’m wondering if you’d like to make a suggestion for the topic of future energy infographics.

Here are a few ideas of my own:

  • Global climate change – predominant beliefs of its causes and effects
  • Alternative fuel vehicles – the pros and cons of each
  • Concepts in energy efficiency
  • Countries with progressive (or backward) energy policies

Again, I’d appreciate any direction you may be able to provide.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

The beauty of the Internet is that it connects so many people with a large and ever growing world of content.  People who would have been difficult and expensive to identify 20 years ago are just a mouse-click away.  Here’s a review of Renewable Energy — Facts and Fantasies by Wayne Hurlbert in Winnipeg, writing for Blog Business World.  

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Reader James Deardorff points out:

Conserving energy and natural resources can reduce economic waste by 40 percent or more. The problem is that conservation is counterproductive to our current production based economy. I’m working on a new paper “Corrosion Economics, The Psychology of Paint” that explains how this modern trend affects the $60 billion per year coating industry.

Thanks, Jim, but I’m not sure if this really is a modern trend. Consumers tend to have huge “discount rates,” i.e., overvaluing the present at the expense of the future. This unfortunate phenomenon lies behind a great deal of the pain we’re causing our environment: favoring cheap but dirty fuels, postponing global climate change mitigation, and maintaining the status quo with internal combustion engine transportation.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Geothermal

PART ONE 

General Principles

Traditional Geothermal

Geothermal technology and GeoExchange technology are often confused with one another in the mind of the public. This confusion is understandable as the term ‘Geothermal’ is often applied to both technologies – even by industry practitioners.

‘True’ Geothermal, also referred to as ‘hot rocks’, can be characterized as seeking a source of high – temperature heat from within the Earth with the goals of either producing electricity or providing space heating. Super-heated water or steam from Earth’s interior can be utilized to run turbines in a conventional power plant to generate electricity. Technologies currently in use include dry steam power plants, flash steam power plants and binary cycle power plants. Geothermal electricity generation is currently used in approximately 24 countries around the world. Geothermal space-heating involves harnessing a source of heat, most commonly hot springs, and distributing that source water to buildings via a piping network employing heat exchangers. Geothermal heating is globally in use in approximately 70 countries.
Geothermal power is considered to be sustainable because the heat extraction is minimal compared with the Earth’s heat content. The emission intensity of existing geothermal electric plants is on average approximately 122 kg of CO2 per megawatt-hour (MW/h) of electricity – approximately one-eighth that of a conventional coal-fired plant.

GeoExchange

In contrast (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Sungevity, based in California and known for its home solar products and services, recently announced its international launch into Holland.  While Sungevity has expanded across the U.S. into various states, this will be the first time it is crossing abroad. In fact, Sungevity is the first United States-based home solar company to expand internationally. This great news for the home solar industry, environmental enthusiasts, and those looking to save money on their electric bill. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Nuclear

Frequent commenter and all-around smart guy Frank Eggers points out that there has been no discussion of liquid fluoride thorium reactors here at 2GreenEnergy.  He’s absolutely right, and I propose we attempt to rectify this.

Personally, I don’t know what to make of thorium.  The brilliantly made two-hour-long video linked above is quite compelling, in that the main presenter, Kirk Sorensen is a super-articulate spokesperson for the technology.   Of course, I can find articulate spokespeople for all types of yo-yo stuff.  Having said that, I learned a great deal from the video, and again, I invite conversation.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Question: How cheaply can we generate electricity if we don’t care what we do to the planet in the process?

Answer: Can be found at here:

Relevance: A friend told me about his trip to Inner Mongolia (see photo linked below), and said he’d never been happier to get out of anywhere. He explained that because of the density of the coal-fired power plants and other industrial facilities, you couldn’t see a mile in any direction, even on the clearest day. 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

At the rate of a few times a week I’m asked about global climate change, and I provide a brief summary, including the concept:

This is complicated. No one knows exactly how changes in the constitution of our atmosphere will affect global temperatures and weather conditions. I can tell you a couple of things for certain, though: 1) Special interests are working overtime to paint this picture in their favor. 2) The vast majority of climate scientists warn us that this is a very large and serious threat. 3) If there is a problem, as these people almost uniformly tell us, it’s going to be a runaway train, i.e., something that will be much harder to fix later than it would be now. 4) Prudent people buy insurance to protect themselves against devastating events — even if those events are of low probability; they don’t need to be certain they will have a house fire to buy fire insurance. The analogy here is very strong.  

As of today, however, I tell them one other thing: Take 12 minutes out of your life and watch the late climatologist and Stanford professor Stephen Schneider’s video on YouTube.  I wish there were a way to get everyone on Earth to check this out.   

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