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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I just got off the phone with Michal Lenchner, whom I had met at the Plug-In 2010 conference for electric vehicles not too long ago. A committed environmentalist, Michal writes a column for the San Francisco Examiner (linked above) that’s a true fountainhead of information on a range of eco-issues.

In particular, she wrote me recently suggesting that I look more deeply into water: desalination, re-use of gray water, the energy required to move water around, and the water required to extract oil and gas. While it’s not a subject of which I have a deep understanding, it most certainly is an interesting and important one. I recall what the late Matt Simmons of Peak Oil fame told me when I interviewed him for my book:

Oil and gas exploration uses a remarkably large amount of water — and often other energy. The oil sands of Canada use just a phenomenal amount of potable water and natural gas to actually steam it out of the sands. In California, something like two-thirds of their oil supply comes from Kern County’s heavy oil, and while the San Joaquin Valley is one of the key food supply sources of America, they’re having a very serious drought.

I’ve asked Michal to become a guest blogger here; I very much hope she’ll take me up on my offer.

　

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

In his recent article on Renewable Energy World titled Electricity markets are weird: why a carbon price isn’t enough, Sean Casten provides several scholarly reasons that establishing a carbon tax is tricky business. I encourage everyone to read this; it’s really worthwhile.

But at the end of the day, Mr. Casten seems to be to be splitting hairs. Where we are now is a million miles from where we need to be in terms of providing a level playing field for renewables. I simply ask Congress to get us into the right galaxy – then we can start talking about Pareto-efficient markets and cost/price causality. As long as the fossil fuel energy industry receives multi-billion dollar government subsidies, favorable treatment from the Bureau of Land Management, and immunity from the costs of the environmental damage it’s causing, I can’t see the reason to get too heavily into the microeconomics here.

We need to make wholesale changes in the way we view the costs of energy. Until that time, the energy industry is looking on at this discussion and snickering as they continue on their path of rape and ruin.

　

　

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Efficiency

While the Florida utility company Progress Energy has led the conservation charge for its consumers in Florida, in Virginia, a conservation program has been launched by the Virginia State Corporation Commission at the bidding of the State Assembly. The Virginia Energy Sense program was launched in late July 2010, and is geared to help residents and businesses become smarter energy users and reduce electricity use. The tag line used for the program is “Value your power.”

Perhaps as each state, community and/or company tackles energy conservation and education, the message and knowledge will spread. Will a federal energy program and more ‘buy-in’ for renewables follow in Washington?

The Virginia program offers a comprehensive interactive website, with step-by-step videos, budget tips, education on appliance use, and a tool to track energy consumption. Rewards can be earned to use at local retailers, too.

Virginia Energy Sense is the state’s outreach and consumer education program under the State Corporation Commission (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

We certainly see a great deal of the old “David and Goliath” metaphor in our conversations in this industry – especially in electric transportation. Though a number of EV start-ups have gone belly-up over the past few years, there are still many such Davids, feverishly ramping up to take on the Goliaths of Nissan, GM, and the other traditional automakers.

Bob Lutz, former co-chairman of GM, said on CBS’s 60 Minutes about a year ago that only experienced carmakers have the background to deliver electric vehicles. Horse hockey.  That’s self-serving garbage, and he knows it. Obviously they have an advantage – especially since they’re approaching the problem with $85 billion of your (taxpayers’) money. But we’re about to see exactly what a whole slew of nimble companies with good ideas and cutting-edge technology can do, in competition against the stodgy behemoths.

I know I’m not alone in wishing that this weren’t the worst period in history for capital formation since the Great Depression. But even in their hamstrung condition, we’re about to enter some exciting times in the electric vehicle market. In addition to Tesla – a company that garners an astonishing amount of ink each week, we have Phoenix Motorcars, Coda, BYD, Fisker, and many others right behind them.

I’m wondering what effect this new, competitive environment – and a true paradigm shift in driving – will have on the GM IPO. What’s investors’ forecast for a company like GM, selling into an auto consumer base that doesn’t think or act like the baby boomer generation? Where will the modern car-buyer go who wants a high-quality automobile that doesn’t make him a slave to the oil companies? I guess we’ll see shortly – but I see another rock to the head coming for Goliath.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Dr. Bob Goldschmidt writes:

We are only fooling ourselves if we think electric cars won’t be charged during peak usage hours.

Bob: I’m interested to hear you say that. Why do you believe this? Even the people who don’t care about the environment are quite protective of their checking accounts. If offered a huge discount for off-peak charging, won’t almost everyone take it?

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I like to post articles on Renewable Energy World, as they have pretty decent traffic among people interested in a wide range of clean energy topics.  Today, I commented on Stephen Lacey’s piece Is the Transmission ‘Problem’ Real? in which I indicated that he’s correct: to some degree, the argument that the grid needs to be upgraded in order to accommodate more clean energy is specious.

I go on to mention that I’m more interested in renewables on a national or continental scale. And, while I’m aware that Bill McKibben and thousands of other smart people see a future dominated by individual energy farmers, each, putting his unused electrons back onto the grid, I question whether this adequately addresses the matter of scale. With our growing population of energy-hungry consumers, utility-scale renewables appears to me to be the only way to get this done.

And this is where transmission really is an issue.  As we know, renewable resources are localized: the sun shines hottest in the southwestern deserts, the wind blows hardest in the plains, the mountains have the best geothermal resources, etc.  A significant upgrade to the grid — preferably to high-voltage DC — is required to make this happen.

Yet, as usual, the difficulty here is almost exclusively political. In particular, we’re being told that, for legal reasons, we can’t have a national high-voltage grid. And unfortunately, the US Supreme Court didn’t help the cause in its recent ruling, either.

I really don’t understand the problem.  We have national pathways for the transportation of automobiles, railway cars, natural gas, etc.  Can someone provide a reason — other than sleezy politics — that we can’t use our crystal clean eminent domain laws to get this done? There should be nothing new or scary about this.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Thirty-six industry and environmental groups signed and sent an urgent letter to the Senate, urging opposition to any amendment in the upcoming Energy Bill that would increase ethanol in gasoline. Some are apparently seeking approval in Congress to increase ethanol in gasoline from the current 10% up to 15%. The press  release pointed out that NPRA (National Petrochemical & Refiners Association) was among the signatories against such a move.

If ethanol is increased, fears include increasing emissions from engines using ethanol, hurting gasoline-powered engines, defeating emissions control devices and safety risks. The group cites Section (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

I just got off the phone with an extremely professional company in Portugal with which 2GreenEnergy will be partnering to deliver renewables consulting and EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) projects for our clients.

You’ll travel a long way to find a group of people with a deeper background in the guts of what makes large projects – especially CSP (concentrating solar power) work. Coincidentally, my main contact, Agostinho Miguel Garcia, knows David Mills, co-founder and chief scientist at Ausra – whom I interviewed for my book’s chapter on the subject. Check them out here.

I always expect the Portuguese to speak a number of languages, but this guy exceeded my expectations there too – a total of six including Mandarin. Holy smokes.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I’m trying to get some “big ideas” for my next book on renewables.  The one I favor at this point is a take-off on the first book’s “tough realities” theme:

What, pragmatically, are we facing – technologically, economically, and politically — in terms of the migration to renewables?

I like to investigate the themes that I myself most want to learn about – in the belief that my own way of thinking is a reasonable proxy for others. To that end, I propose to explore ideas like:

  • Socially, how to you make this happen? I.e., How does one motivate people to deal with the financial pain of the front-loaded costs of renewables? In particular, how do we accomplish this in the real world of politics and public relations in which we live?
  • To what degree is efficiency important? What is the import of the fact that Europeans about one-half the amount of power per capita as Americans?  But again, how to do get people to deal with a certain amount of sacrafice?
  • I deliver consulting services to companies that take ecologically dangerous substances (e.g., chicken manure and coal ash) and turn it into clean and useful products (e.g., energy and building products, respectively) that have had a tough time selling their wares, since historically there has been no legal imperative for anyone to adopt new, cleaner business practices. How is that likely to change in the coming years, as the world sees an increasing need to protect itself from the lethal effects of pollution?  How will that change affect my clients’ business viability?
  • To what degree does society need to create millions of decentralized and localized “utilities” in the form of consumers with their own PV arrays, wind turbines, etc? Can this help us avoid making the same mistake we made last time in creating huge energy companies and centralized utilities?
  • Is there a way to do any of this without a significant increase in the price of fossil-fuel-based energy?  If not, as I currently suspect, how should that price increase come about?
  • What are the most likely scenarios for the increasing costs (economic, social, military) of our current course re: fossil fuels?
  • In turn, what are the most likely trajectories for the migration to clean energy, considering the growth in energy-hungry segments of the world’s population?
  • Will there be a gap, as some suggest, where the energy required to build and deploy renewables in a timely fashion is simply unavailable? What then?
  • And speaking of gaps, why is there such a huge chasm between most serious scientists and economists – and those who believe that “business as usual” is a reasonable course for mankind to pursue?

Please let me know what you think here.  Thanks.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

In my estimation, Scott Adams (of “Dilbert” fame) is one of the brightest people living among us. His sardonic observations on the realities of the workplace have amused – and, I dare say, enlightened — people for many decades.

For anyone who missed his piece on building a “green” house in this weekend’s weekend Wall Street Journal, I’ve linked it above. Of course, the only reason it wound up in the WJS is the fact that, to some degree, it lampoons those of us who care about the quality of the world we’re leaving to future generations. But true to form, Adams’ article gets so many things right – and provides so many chuckles – that that it’s more that worth your time.

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