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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

I’d like to call readers’ attention to this discussion of the validity of electric transportation.  In fact, the discussion began earlier in this piece on bashing electric vehicles.   There are a lot of interesting ideas here that challenge the way the EV community generally sees the issue.

I would like to add one more variable into the equation: distributed generation. I bring this up partially because I know people who spec’d the solar arrays they put on their roofs specifically to charge their EVs, and partially because distributed solar (not to mention  distributed wind/geo/hydro), has a real shot to change the energy paradigm in the not-too-distant future. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized

Did you know that is takes electricity and water to make oil  into gasoline ? This is part of the refining process. The following facts are from a great article that Peder Norby did on oil refining. He walks the talk driving his MINI-E electric everyday and making the electric for it on his Solar system.

He shows how it takes more electricity to make a gallon of gas that you can drive in an EV! (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Hawaii has been known as a land of paradise. They have a great climate and can grow anything anyplace. But did you know Hawaii runs most of paradise on oil-generated electricity? Of course, all of the oil is imported too.

Recently becuase of fast growing prices they started looking at renewable energy in Hawaii. They found they have great solar, wind, hydro wave and currents and even geothermal energy. They are now just starting to develop these great renewable energy sources.

In Hawaii they have have many small islands and micro grids that are not connected. This makes it difficult to combine all the great renewable energy sources they have into an efficient grid. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

It’s the birthday of Mark Twain, who said, “Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing the matter with this, except that it ain’t so.”

I’m afraid he’s nailed something here. There is a great deal of truth in what we are doing in our advocacy of clean energy, but if it does indeed win the day, it certainly will not be due simply to that one characteristic.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Glenn Doty is an extremely senior scientist who studies the macro-world of energy, and doesn’t like what he sees regarding electric transportation. He writes:

While I have tremendous respect for you and the work that you are doing, I have very little respect for the people who compiled that study that you referenced.

The simple truth is that you cannot claim “grid mix” for a new marginal increase in grid demand. If you plug in a new toy (EV), they can’t do a rain dance to get additional energy from the hydropower dam… nor will they amp up the local nuclear reactor to provide more power… The only possible source for the energy going into NEW demand will be what is currently SPARE capacity – that’s natural gas and coal. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

A friend from China writes:

A pleasure speaking with you on Skype. I believe that with your connections we should be able to develop cleantech companies in China and more renewable energy projects in this part of the world.

The city of Beijing government on the 15th of June 2011, during a closed meeting with Embassies, Consulates and some of the top 100 foreign companies in China announced that the City of Beijing has RMB60 billion (US$10 Billion) to support foreign cleantech companies in China, to make Beijing the first truly green city in the world. I have attached a brief article on China’s Green Technology Program.

Thank you for the book. I appreciate it very much.

My reply includes:

Thanks. I’m sorry for not having sent the book to you earlier. As we discussed, there is much for Americans to worry about re: IP protection in dealing with China. But you folks out-invested us by a factor of 24:1 last year in solar alone ($34B vs. $1.3B). So, while there is much to fear, there is much to be gained.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

Noted environmentalist and energy expert Bruce Severance will join me for December’s webinar: How to Increase the Energy Efficiency of Existing Structures – and WHY.

Now, if that title carries with it a certain feeling of mystery, that’s not an accident. From his vast experience as a design engineer, Bruce will offer us tips on eco-friendly construction and retrofit. But it is from his life-long advocacy for the environment that he proposes to tell us exactly why what we’re doing here and now has such a dramatic effect on the quality of the planet we’ll inhabit in a few years.

Hope you can join us. Sign-up information will be available soon.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Are you one of the many Americans jacked out of shape by this country’s supposed “slide into socialism?”  If so, there may be far better places to look for evidence of this trend than whatever differences may divide present-day Democrats and Republicans. In particular, have you ever thought about the G. W. Bush Administration’s No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 – whose very title and mission statement suggests a wholesale redistribution of educational resources onto the least talented kids?

Think of what Darwin would have asked us from his grave:

Are you idiots thinking about taking the very law that governs life in the universe, turning it upside down, and thinking this will somehow represent an improvement? And now, a few years later, you’re complaining that you’re profoundly ill-equipped to compete economically in the 21st Century?   Sorry, but if that’s the depth of your understanding of the natural laws, one of which I handed you 150 years ago, you’ve gotten exactly what you deserved.

Kidding aside, who but a politician would suggest that no child be left behind? Out of tens of millions of schoolkids, shouldn’t the lowest 10% or so be deliberately left behind, out of favor to the other 90%?  This isn’t a philosophic argument; we seem to have lost grasp on the most basic concepts of science.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

A reader from the U.K., Derek Deighton, writes:

I’m sorry, am I missing something?  Does it matter what America thinks and does? Assuming no doomsday, America is not going to be more than at best an equal partner in a world centered on Asia.

Speaking from the UK, you seem to have an inflated sense of your importance as a society, as we did with the Empire, and are still wont to do on occasion.

I reply:

Touche! (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

We’ve all seen comparisons of the virtues of electric vehicles to their internal combustion counterparts, and noticed that they seem to exclude the many different externalities of oil: lung disease, environmental damage, national security, etc.  Most people believe that we fight wars over access to oil, and I happen to be one of them. What value do you think that I, as the father of the boy pictured here, now 18, who could wind up killed or maimed, would place on that externality?  Let’s just call it “significant.”

 

 

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