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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Geothermal

I have to say that the hosts of these radio shows on which I’m a guest ask some good questions. The fellow this morning, Rodd Stowell of Statewide Nevada (syndicated to 150 stations) asked a great deal about geothermal. “This sounds really promising,” he said. “One local plant started off with four holes, and now they have 12. What’s not to like about that?”

I explained that the answer is actually implied in the question. “Note that they didn’t know what they’d find when they drilled their first hole; it’s oddly reminiscent of oil exploration 100 years ago. If technology existed to tell them what they’d find in advance, they would have drilled all 12 simultaneously. But there was a chance they’d come up empty. Not only do you have to find heat, but you have to find porosity between two points far underground, and that’s iffy,” I replied. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I have two radio interviews lined up for tomorrow in which I’ll be interviewed about my book.  I’m pleased to note that requests are coming in at a fairly good pace, though I don’t take too much credit for that personally.  Obviously, it’s good that we have a hot topic here; I’d hate to be trying to drum up interviews to talk about risotto or the social behavior of the speckled trout. 

One of my slots tomorrow is as a guest on a program called Brainstormin’.  The host?  None other than Billy the Brain. 

Yikes.  Better run out for some ginko biloba.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Will renewables dominate our energy future? Without a doubt.

Who will get rich in the process? Now there’s a good question.

Here’s a post I put up on EnvironmentalLeader.com that attempts an answer.

I like these folks at Environmental Leader for what it’s worth.  Based in Denver, they’ve done a really good job at building a wide cross-section of content on the subject.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

Abengoa Solar announced recently that it has finalized $1.45 billion in financing to build the world’s largest parabolic trough concentrating solar power plant. Called Solana, the new project will be located about 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, Arizona. Abengoa signed a power purchase agreement with Arizona Public Service Co to. buy the energy produced by Solana for a 30 year term. Arizona Public Service Co is Arizona’s largest electric utility.

About 1,700 new construction jobs are being created with the project, and more than 85 are permanent jobs. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

A big part of the burgeoning cleantech market is education, as millions of people begin to ponder the process of bringing themselves up to speed on the basics of wind turbines, solar panels, EV charging infrastructure, etc.

Each week I run across more players in this field, including frequent 2GreenEnergy blogger Dennis Miles, with his Electric Vehicle Technical Institute Inc., a trade school focused on training EV technicians.

Here’s another hot new entrant: Ecotech Institute, which bills itself as “the first and only college focused entirely on preparing America’s workforce for careers in renewable energy and sustainable design.” Today, they announced that students are now taking classes in its brand new facility in Aurora, CO.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

When we discuss global warming here, we (predictably) get a range of reactions, including the comments of the deniers, like this one:

NASA has stated that ALL the planets in our solar system are heating up. I would say that this definitely points to the Sun as the source…. I do not think that humans are responsible for any global warming.

I respect the opinion of all readers here, but let me take a moment and present my own viewpoint, which goes back to numerous suggestions I received from friends when I became interested in the subject.  They’d ask, “Craig, why don’t you do your own independent research of global warming?”

Well, I’ll tell you why not. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

There are 8 – 10 places around the world that I’ve unofficially “annexed” as offices-outside-my-office – you know, venues to meet business contacts when an office setting is unnecessary.

I try to make these settings a treat for my guests. When people come to see me from Nebraska, for instance, how likely is it that they’d like to see the inside of a steak house? That’s why I’ve annexed One Pico, a nice restaurant in Santa Monica, overlooking the deep blue Pacific — a view that I have to think most Nebraskans would find more appealing.

At noon today, I have a meeting in which I’ll be talking about electric vehicles with a local businessman. We’ll be (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized

A few people around here routinely tell me to knock off my “the sky is falling” assessment of the state of the planet.  Whether these folks are oil company shills or simply just silly optimists is something I’ll probably never know.  But here’s a certainty: in comparison to some, I’m a regular Pollyanna.

A reader commented the other day that he was lucky enough to take a course at the University of Manitoba taught by the highly decorated Vaclav Smil.

“We are structurally cooked,” says Smil. “(Saving our civilization) is doable, but doable only by catastrophe and crisis,” he said in October. Want an eye-opener?  Here’s a link to some of Smil’s viewpoints.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized

When future American historians of the 22nd Century look back in an attempt to understand the many trials, tribulations and, yes, perhaps the wisdom of our time, I hope they will be able to point with the same pride in us as I hope we can muster on the 250th Anniversary of the founding of America (July 4th, 2026) when we proclaimed our “Energy Independence Day”. We have 15 and a half years to make that happen. Let’s do it!

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

We hear a great deal about partisan bickering in Washington, but according to a webinar I attended this morning on power transmission, the governors of each state on the eastern seaboard of the US from Maine to Virginia are all in complete accord on the imperative to develop offshore wind. “There are a couple of extremely conservative Republicans in that mix,” one speaker noted. “But let me tell you, if I showed you each governor’s statement on this subject and removed the names, I would challenge you to tell me who made which statement.”

That’s encouraging.

So is the raw potential to share power across what are now regional grids. (more…)

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