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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I’d much rather drive than fly if the trip is less than about five hours by car. For that reason, I’ll be driving to San Jose this afternoon for one of my “Craig Shields…At Your Service” sessions, in which I’ll be advising a client on a business strategy for his synthetic fuels concept. From what I can determine, this looks like a real breakthrough.

These are the kind of projects I love: working with a smart guy whose strength lies in the science, wide open to a range of business possibilities, and richly appreciative of the value that I bring to the table. With any luck, we can change the world.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Clean Energy Trends 2011, the annual report from Clean Edge, Inc., was recently published. This is the 10th annual report the company has written on green energy, with now a full decade of accumulated information of the industry.

The authors, including Ron Pernick, tell us that ten years ago when the first Clean Energy Trend report was released, the concept of “clean tech” was virtually unknown in the mass media, among politicians or in business circles. In fact, they say, “At the time, there (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Here’s a continuation of my conversation with a reader on the EV adoption curve, where he writes:

You are so right.  Maintenance is an issue if you decide to own your car for a long, long time.  But with a 4-year payback, the Focus will probably get by on just oil changes and some light maintenance. Leaf offers a 3-year $349/month lease with $1,999 down.  So maybe a 3-year payback is necessary.

Fast charging is not a solution to anything.  Fast chargers are very expensive and will never pay back ever.  With electricity at 10 cents per kWh, they just don’t make sense…take a 100A at 240 VAC – 24kW, now you charge for 30 minutes = you use 12kWh times 10 cents = $1.20. Not much there for anyone.

Will EV costs come down? Maybe but very, very slowly.  The (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

A reader who predicts a slow EV adoption curve writes:

Americans are addicted to not only to oil but also　to driving.　 Most Americans see automobiles as freedom to do whatever, whenever they like. They do not like to be restricted by anything, including their vehicles. Early adopters are slightly different and are probably wealthy enough to have a bunch of cars to drive on any given day. So it is more a fashion statement or “I am green” statement.

At $26,220 for a Leaf and $21065 for 5 dr Focus with automatic trans; the cost penalty is $5,155. Assume 12,000 miles driving per year.  Focus get 31 mpg composite = 387 gallons gas at $4 per gallon = $1,548 for gas and the Leaf gets 100 miles on 23 kWh which takes $2.53 per charge ($0.11 per kWh) x 120 charges = $303 for electricity. Net savings per year is $1,244 and divide that into $5,155 = 4.14 year payback.　 Marginal but add into that the fact that you can’t drive it if you have to go more than 100 miles.  Logical answer for today’s mainstream customer is no thank you.

To which I reply:

This is very good stuff, but here are a couple of points:

Total cost of ownership over years of oil changes, tune-ups, valve jobs, radiator leaks, exhaust systems, smog checks, etc. on ICEs is replaced by a car with almost no moving parts, no explosions going on in it, almost no maintenance expense and better peace of mind.

Until we have a good, ubiquitous fast-charging solution (decades), most EVs will be sold into multi-car families who can always take the ICE if they want to go on a road trip. How many such families like that are there? Tens of millions.

Costs will be coming down as technology improves and scale is achieved.

In addition to making the statement that “I am green,” the driver is making the statement “I am patriotic” (by not driving my country into debt to foreign enemies, not to mention wars that are costly in terms of both dollars and lives). As a marketing guy, I only hope I get the chance to tell this story; I promise you, I’ll have a FIELD DAY with it.

　

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I’ve been to quite a few events recently in which Chinese investors are promoted as potential sources of capital for US cleantech companies. I really have no way to gauge the veracity of this claim — and certainly the unknowns in the varying cultural elements seems a bit frightening.

But my friends at OnGreen seem undaunted. Check this out. They’re plunging in head first, with a very creative marketing idea: a contest in which the first five CEOs of prospect companies they select to make presentations to Chinese cleantech investors are given free roundtrip air fare from Los Angeles to Shanghai.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

While researching this article to learn more about how to design an Energy Efficient Home, I spent much of my time on the internet to see just what is out there right now that could be incorporated into a new Model for Residential Houses. So, most of this information is not mine – but freely available to anyone who wants to conduct their own research. I put much of what I found here just to save you the time to do your own homework – but at least it will give you a few ideas and you can then do your own further investigation. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Nuclear

In response to my posting my friend Tom Blakeslee’s piece on the developments in low-energy nuclear reactors coming out of Italy, frequent commenter Dan Conine writes:

The problem with Cold Fusion is not the energy, nor the impossibility of it, but that in order to acknowledge it, someone has to admit that what they thought they knew is not what ‘is’. Beliefs are tough to shed.

Funny you mention that. When I was out at Tom’s place last week, this is exactly what he told me. And he’s right, of course. The reason paradigms stay in place and blind us in our research is that we feel much better confirming rather than disconfirming what we believe.

This, btw, is an important theme in Nassim Taleb’s masterpiece The Black Swan – The Impact of the Highly Improbable, which I strongly recommend.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

I’d like to invite you to our monthly webinar at 2GreenEnergy. The current Topic:  Everything You Need To Know About the Electric Vehicle (EV) Business.

As I’m sure you’re aware, there are many reasons that the world of transportation is running hard and fast in the direction of EVs. If we want national security, we need energy security – and that requires that we wean ourselves off of oil as soon as possible.  And national security is just the beginning.  What about the damage that our dependence on oil is doing to our health, our environment, our economy?

But suppose you’re not a humanitarian, nor an environmentalist, nor even a patriot.  Let’s suppose you’re just a frustrated, stressed-out American, looking to profit handsomely as we replace the 300 million cars and trucks on US roads – not to mention the couple of billion that will soon be all over the rest of the planet. You realize that electric vehicles will enjoy a 10% penetration in the US by 2020 – a $250 billion market – and you wonder to yourself:  Hey, can’t I fit into that supply chain somewhere? (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

This morning, I recorded next week’s Clean Energy Radio segment for WebTalkRadio, in which I interviewed Belén Gallego, director of CSP Today.

With offices in London and Hoboken NJ, CSP Today provides comprehensive, cutting-edge information online and through trade shows on concentrated solar power (aka solar thermal) in all its varieties – and Belén did a great job as a guest.

Although the CSP industry lacks the political muscle of the fossil fuel and nuclear people, Belén remains quite positive about the future. Of all the forms of energy, clean or dirty, safe or dangerous, CSP is the most dispatchable.  While PV and wind are intermittent, and coal and nuclear run 24 hours a day, CSP, with low-cost energy storage in the form of molten salt, can be turned on and off by grid operators when needed.

As I’ve said hundreds of times, if I were king of the world, we’d be doing solar thermal in a very big way.

If you’re interested in their free newsletter, I encourage you to sign up (like I did) on the website: CSP Today.

My thanks to Belén for her terrific job on the show, and for her continued work to bring about a healthy, safe, and sane world.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

I got a great deal of really good feedback on some of my previous posts about biomimicry, especially this one on Janine Benyus. So let me suggest another talk I know you’ll enjoy.

Here, Michael Pawlyn explains how we can learn from nature to create radical increases in resource efficiency and move from a fossil fuel- to a solar economy.  Note what he says at the end of the talk on CSP (concentrated solar power).

You’ll find the presentation quite upbeat. In fact, Pawlyn notes, “Far too much of the talk about the environment uses negative language; here it’s about synergies, possibilities, and abundance.”

Enjoy.

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