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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Biomass

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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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

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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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Biomass

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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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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

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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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

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.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

A well-meaning reader quotes some figures from energy industry author Robert Bryce:

Nuclear 300 hp/acre
Nat gas 288 hp/acre
Solar 36 hp/acre
Wind 6.4 hp/acre
Corn ethanol 1/4 hp/acre

From what I’ve seen, Bryce appears to have made his fortune as a well-paid pawn of the traditional energy industry, offering a torrent of spurious reasons that renewables will never work. Here, he talks about a statistic that has virtually no meaning: power/area ratio; it’s certainly not in the top 20 reasons to like or dislike an energy technology. Robert, we have plenty of room, and I have to think that you know that.

So nuclear’s good because you can develop a lot of energy in a small space — by endangering every man, woman and child on Earth for the next 500,000 years — at tremendous cost?

Malicious nonsense.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized

I invite readers in Southern California to Vanguard University in Costa Mesa on February 4th for their annual Environmental Sustinability Conference, at which I’ll be speaking.  They’ve given me 20 minutes with another 10 for Q&A; I’m on sometime in the mid-afternoon (to be arranged).  Hope to see you there.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

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When people ask me to explain my position on global warming, I normally assert what I’ve learned from the interviews I’ve conducted, while politely acknowledging that I’m not an expert on the subject.  I also point out that the specifics of the subject that are yet to be — and probably never will be — fully understood.  When I encounter adamant climate change deniers, I calmly suggest that they find one of any number of other reasons to urge a rapid migration away from fossil fuels: national security, public health, etc. 

However, when pressed for my true beliefs, I have to admit that I get really stern.  What remaining hair I have on the back of my arms stands up and blood vessels swell in my forehead as I (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized

I hope everyone will take five minutes and watch the incredible video linked here, in which the genius Hans Rosling summarizes 200 years of world history. When you get finished picking your chin up off the floor in utter amazement at how cool this analysis is, I’m sure you’ll have some of the same thoughts I did, as the piece touches on many subjects within the spheres of technology, geo-politics, sociology, and philosophy.

My first thought was sustainability. Note Rosling’s vision for the future: “Perhaps all the peoples of the world can become healthy and wealthy.” Perhaps so. But if any reason for optimism actually exists, we as a civilization need to move quickly to a way of dealing with the natural world that is non-exploitative. To the degree that we look at our challenges in energy, for example, and say, “Hell, we just need better pumps to suck this stuff out of the ground,” we’re pursuing a course that cannot possibly sustain itself — let alone provide for the health of current and future generations.

The concept that “the world is ours for the taking” simply does not apply to the 21st Century the way we assumed it did in the industrial revolution 150 years ago. 

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

The Vector hopes readers follow Ford Motor Company and note how it is guaranteeing its relevance in the 21st Century. First and most obviously, we like the way it cooly turned down government bailout money, then turned a $2.7 billion profit in 2009. Nothing says relevance like winning, and doing so without bilking the taxpayers.

Just as impressive, Ford embraces the EV future. In preparing itself to compete with the Nissan LEAF, the Chevy Volt, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, and products soon to hit the streets from BMW and dozens of others, the importance of leadership in this space is clearly not lost on Ford. (more…)

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