Craig, I’ve been reading the chapter of you book on Electric Vehicles like the New Ford Focus Electric and the new Electric Hybrids like the Chevy Volt. I was surprised to have received a correspondence from Bob Lutz at GM back in the Spring of 2007 saying that he would do everything in his power to make it a reality in 2010. I must say, he kept his word. I went to purchase one from a dealer in Washington, D.C. in late December 2010 and ran headlong into a stone wall. Yes, I could have purchased one by now if I would have been willing to pay the additional $5,000 early delivery fee…which I wasn’t and will not. I told the dealer that when they want to sell me a vehicle in the future, they will have to meet my price, not the other way around. (more…)

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There can never be anything approaching a full economic recovery without the deliberate and active participation of the American consumer period. We, the American consumer, make up 70% of the entire U.S. economy. (more…)

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Last March, I became aware of a situation that gave me great pause of concern. I read that U.S. Intelligence had captured a U.S. Citizen in Somalia and while interrogating him they discovered that he had worked as a laborer in 5 of our nuclear power plants here in the eastern part of the country. Having worked for NSA back in the early 1970’s I quickly realized that he wasn’t there just for the money. I suspect that he was there probing for ways to plan future attacks on our nuclear power plants. The M.O. was similarly eerie to that of the planning and implimentation that brought down the World Trade Centers on 9/11.  Instead of their trying to bring a nuclear device into this country, why not take advantage of the ones that are readily available in this country (our nuclear power plants). The terrorists found a way to circumvent our security right underneath our eyes and used what they found readily available in our aviation training schools and used our own planes as low level missiles. (more…)

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Question: What popular television news show brought the ecological dangers of coal ash to the nation’s attention in 2009? Approximately how much do we create annually in the US alone?

Answer: Can be found at http://2greenenergy.com/cool-guess-answers/8732.

Relevance: In another “lemons to lemonade” story, one of our clients has developed a proprietary resin-based process to take massive amounts of coal ash and cost-effectively manufacture building products (e.g., roof shingles) from it.

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In a typical year, I try to attend most of the major local energy industry conferences, and another three or four scattered around the globe that I deem to be particularly important – especially if I can combine them with other business purposes, or visits to family and friends within a reasonable drive. There are plenty of good, solid reasons to go. We learn from smart people who live and breathe this stuff, we do what we can to scope out the state of the art, and we network. The food’s great, and after hours we have a couple of drinks.

The Renewable Energy Finance Forum is always on my radar screen, as it provides all these benefits in spades. (more…)

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Question: Amount how many tons of C&D (construction and demolition) waste comes out of New England and New York every year? Where does almost all of that stuff go?

Answer: Can be found at http://2greenenergy.com/cool-guess-answers/8732.

Relevance: Almost 30% of C&D waste is wood, whose energy content can be extracted with any of a number of gasification technologies. A client of ours has nailed down a consistent source of feedstock, a low-cost way of shipping and sorting it, and a technique (thermal anaerobic gasification) to process it without creating carcinogenic slag as a byproduct. The ultimate in “turning lemons to lemonade.”

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The Emirates Solar Industry Association was launched in early January 2011. The association is bringing together industry players in photovoltaics, concentrating solar power and solar thermal as well as those involved in supplying and subsidiary roles, like engineering or glass firms. But a goal of the industry is to aid international solar companies that want to set up business or bases in the Emirates.

The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi is behind the initiative. The Masdar Institute is an independent, graduate-level, not-for-profit, research-driven institute that works in cooperation with MIT. Its mission is to solve world problems on the issues of sustainability. The Institute is situated in Masdar City, an (more…)

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Question: Approximately how many chickens are there in North America, and how much manure do they produce annually?

Answer: Can be found at http://2greenenergy.com/cool-guess-answers/8732.

Relevance: While the manure from chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows is becoming a terrible ecological hazard, many straightforward and low-cost technologies exist to convert that manure into biofuels and electricity. As one of our clients is in this business, I’ve seen a live demo. Glad I remembered to bring my old shoes.

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For those of you who like brain teasers, we’ve introduced “Take a COOL Guess – the Fun Quiz on Clean Energy (and Global Warming Remedy)”  Get it?  Cool?  Warming? 

It’s a series of questions, each of which have some relevance to clean energy.  Click here to see the “Take a COOL Guess” entries.

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On December 23, 2009 my wife Diane and I installed a 5.4Kwh PV Array on the roof of our home at 920 Cypress Street, Chambersburg, PA.

Prior to our “going solar” we had reduced our home’s energy use by 65% over the previous 3 years beginning in 2007 through energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy. Had we not made these reductions in energy usage before hand, this same 5.4Kwh PV Array would have only been able to supply our home with just 27% of its energy needs. Therefore, the actual pay off on our investments would have taken perhaps as much as 20 years rather than what we now estimate to be at just over 4-5 years.

(more…)

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