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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The proper role of government in our lives is the biggest single issue confronting politically involved Americans today. Want to rile up an audience about healthcare, for instance? Just tell them either:

a) The government with its bloated bureaucracies, inefficiencies, and corrupt catering to special interests is taking over healthcare and doling it out, at your expense, to people who haven’t earned it, or

b) Healthcare should continue to be run by profit-motivated corporations whose goal is to minimize costs by denying medical coverage (especially to those who need it most) — and government has no business interfering in this cruel and inhuman process.

The same polar arguments could be made for financial regulation, labor and unemployment, economic stimulus, and almost every other major area of debate we face as a society.

I bring this up because (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I had the pleasure of meeting 2GreenEnergy associate Annemarie Osbourne for lunch yesterday. Annemarie is lucky enough to live “bicontinentally,” with homes both in Ansbach (near Nurenberg) Germany and Orange County, CA.

A skilled and savvy PR professional, Annemarie is a constant reminder to me of how much bang for one’s buck public relations can deliver. I came across a dilemma recently that served as the perfect illustration: A client with a consumer product with a tiny budget (about $50K) that wanted to tell its story to the world.

So we had a choice:

a) Recommend some essentially unresearched creative and run a few fairly insignificant ads, or

b) Suggest that Annemarie ply her trade, using her vast network of relationships, and more important, her genius in presenting the concept in a unique and clever way to an entire universe of print and electronic media editors.

It was something of a no-brainer.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which is under the Department of Energy, announced selection of nineteen national leaders for its 2010 Executive Energy Leadership Program. Now in its fourth year, the 5 month program gives executive decision-makers at local levels in-depth knowledge and skills about renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.  The program includes briefings from NREL, technology experts, and well as research lab tours and visits to field applications along with classroom study. At the end of the program, the students each present a viable renewable energy project.

In the first three years of the program, participants were solely based in Colorado. NREL said it was ready to expand the Colorado-based pilot to a national scale.  “As a national laboratory, we launched this (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

I just got off the phone with Christopher Barry, a fascinating naval engineer who comes from decades of work in nautical science.  Chris was good enough to take me through scads of examples all of which illustrated a very important fact:

There are dozens of points of crossover between the tons of engineering work that has already gone into the traditional world of shipbuilding and offshore drilling – and what the renewables industry is now trying to accomplish in offshore wind and ocean energy, e.g., tidal, wave, etc.

(more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

When I sit down with my family at dinner each night and we talk about our experiences of the day, my kids often remark how seriously I take all this renewable energy stuff.  “Dad, isn’t there anything you can smile about here?” they might ask. 

I’ve come to realize that they’re largely right; in fact, I do need to lighten up and see this subject with a bit more whimsy. And to that end, here’s a fun little piece I wrote recently: The Clean Energy IQ Test. I invite you to take the test and see how well you do.

I also invite you to comment, to suggest new questions, to make any recommendations that you feel will make this a better experience for other people who may come across it in the future. As always, thanks.

　

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Trenton Panels courtesy PSE&G

Public Service Electric & Gas (PSE&G), the largest gas and electric utility in New Jersey, is converting an oil coal-gas manufacturing facility in Trenton into a 1.3 MW solar farm. It will provide enough energy to power about 207 residences.

This is the kind of story we see popping up around the U.S. and can be part of the green energy movement to create jobs, make old manufacturing sites useful again, and create clean power for homes and businesses.

New Jersey has become focused on green energy plans. The state committed last year to a half-billion dollar program to install 80 MW of solar power, which will nearly double its current solar capacity.  Called “Solar 4 All”, the plan includes solar panel installation on utility poles in the six largest cities and 300 towns, and 20 projects around the state. The manufacturing facility conversion in Trenton is part of the investment. To date, PSE&G has already installed more than 40,000 solar panels on its utility poles and it plans to put up 160,000 by the end of 2013.

The Trenton site is one of four solar farms underway, and it is a former brownfield (contaminated) site. It is one of the oldest (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Just when you thought every piece of news you were going to come across today was bad, here’s a shining star for those of us who care about the quality of the democracy under which we live.  Two-thirds of Americans oppose the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Citizens United vs. The U.S. Federal Election Commission, and numerous, powerful groups are fighting to overturn it. 

The decision created an absolute right of corporate “speech” to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections, and corporate money poured into the 2010 elections in unprecedented amounts as a result.  This is clearly contrary to our constitutional principles and to the American vision of self-government by free people. That vision cannot coexist with elections dominated by hundreds of millions of dollars of corporate electioneering money. (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I didn’t create Renewable Energy — Facts and Fantasies with the aspirations of becoming the J.K. Rowling of clean energy. I honestly just wanted to have a book that answered people’s questions about a certain subject – albeit it an important one – a short, readable piece that would be appealing to whoever happened to have an active curiosity on the subject.

But now that the book’s available, I’ve decided to try to promote it a bit, as long as that can be done without too much cost or time out of my day. To that end, I’ve engaged a group of folks to try to get me some radio and television interviews, as that certainly seems to be the main way we hear about new books in our world today.

I’m trying to anticipate what this will be like – being on the other end of the flow of questions and answers from my normal role as interviewer. In particular, the experience is rooted in the unknown: when I’m asking the questions, there are no real surprises. But when I’m on the other side, I have to wonder: What question is next? (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

I’m having lunch shortly with Diane Tegarden, the host of “The Firewalker Flare – A Renewable Energy and Environmental Solutions Talk Radio Show.”  Diane is a terrifically sharp and energetic person, and was generous enough to have me on her show a couple of weeks ago.

The podcast of the show, which focused on electric vehicles, is here.

 

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Geothermal

Here’s a continuation of our discussion on geothermal:

There are several U.S. incentives in place that may help expand the geothermal industry:

1) A three year extension of the production tax credit (PTC) making geothermal plants placed in service by December 31, 2013 eligible for the full credit.

2) Extension of the 30% investment tax credit (ITC) to new geothermal projects.

3) $1.6 billion in new bonding authority for Clean Renewable Energy Bonds.

4) Up to $6 billion in loan guarantees for new renewable / geothermal power projects.

Jobs

The Green Jobs Through Geothermal Energy report concludes that the U.S. could significantly bolster levels of employment through expanding the geothermal industry. The report looks carefully at every phase of a geothermal project and the kinds of jobs it creates. It states that more jobs are created than in some energy technologies, but it also employs those from a spectrum of levels and backgrounds, from PhDs to technical “green collar” folks like the drillers, welders and machinists.

A comparative job creation chart from the report is shown below. Comparing Geothermal industry jobs with Natural Gas based on MW produced, sourced from US DOE statistics: (more…)

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