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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Jigar Shah is the CEO of the Carbon War Room in Washington DC, the non-profit brainchild of Sir Richard Branson that brings to bear the tools of free-market capitalism to forward the aims of sustainability in some terrifically clever ways.

Perhaps the feature of the Carbon War Room that jumps out immediately is its grasp on the mathematics of the situation. For instance, as Jigar told me when I interviewed him for my book, Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies, removing 17 megatons of carbon out of our atmosphere annually is the equivalent of replacing 300 million of the world’s cars with Priuses – something that clearly won’t happen.

So what ideas actually scale that far? (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Municipal fleets, including buses and other forms of city transportation, use a heavy amount of energy every year.  Much like the military, we’ve seen a steady decline in the rate at which they consume. Factors include:

  • Manufacturing (technology)
  • People living closer to work
  • Fewer people traveling
  • Hybrid transportation

As part of a systematic attempt to increase fuel efficiency through technology, the CGI (Clinton Global Initiative) has partnered with ESRI and NAVTEQ to decrease our carbon footprint. (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

If you haven’t already looked into my new book, Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies, as well as the special offers for purchasing it on Friday, October 29, 2010, I encourage you to do so.

I provide a broad survey of renewables, presenting 25 interviews with the widest possible variety of subject matter specialists – each chosen to provide an accessible and fair-minded treatment of a particular issue.

The world’s ever-increasing hunger for energy – and its addiction to fossil fuels – is imploding on itself. That’s an unalterable fact. But: (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

courtesy Architectural Digest

James Carville and Mary Matalin gave the closing keynote speech at the largest U.S. solar show, Solar Power International, held in Los Angeles October 12-14th. Matalin is a celebrated conservative and Republican insider, while Carville is a well‐known liberal voice and political consultant.

While the political couple are married but famously on opposite political sides, they said solar is something they — and both political parties — should join forces on. “As politically charged as it is, our energy future is a bipartisan issue.” (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Here’s another notice about the launch of my book, Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies, on Amazon.com.  Again, the big day is Friday, October 29, 2010.

And, to that end, here’s another incentive that I hope you’ll find attractive. (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

As I have mentioned, the Solar Power International show a few weeks ago was a beehive of activity: 27,000 people busily learning, networking, excitedly establishing new business connections. As Americans, we need to be proud of this industry. Here are a few data points to keep in mind.

Growth. In the US, we put on about a gigawatt of solar in the last 12 months. This, of course, is small in comparison to other forms of energy, but it’s the fastest growing source of energy in the US, predicted to grow to 10 gigawatts by 2015. (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Frequent commentor Dan Conine writes:

… Make the actual cost of everything available at the point of purchase, rather than burying costs through incentives and subsidies. People buy gas to go to jobs to buy cars because they think it is cheaper than staying home. If they had to pay for the wars and the subsidized drilling and the tax writeoffs for corporations when they bought the gas or electricity, they would be more likely to resist the urge to waste it, and the costs of renewables would look more viable.

ALL government should be financed by sales taxes, and there should be no favoritism for ‘job creation’ or ‘business’. Most of the things in the economy that are being defended are simply not necessary to the existence of our species. You can’t have everything: where would you put it?

That’s exactly correct, as usual, Dan. It’s amusing to hear the rhetoric surrounding the midterm elections. Virtually every campaign platform is a statement of how this person or proposition aligns with the Constitution and the first principles of democracy. But is anyone talking about stripping away all the bureaucratic contrivances, leaving in place only a pure market economy in which we are free to make our purchases, based on the complete and unaltered costs of the goods we’re buying? Nope.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Re: my piece the other day on Christine O’Donnell, a buddy from high school writes:

Like John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, it appears she is on a mission form God. Her latest quote is, “God, you gave me this desire. You gave me this desire of my heart to serve the people of Delaware, to go in there and be your voice in Congress.”

Well, while we have ample evidence that this works with some folks, I would have to think that the majority of Delaware voters are going to want to see a bit more substance.  Having said that, today’s world is full of surprises that all point to H. L. Mencken’s famous line: “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

There are a few weapons in my arsenel as an advocate for renewables, and one of them is a fairly comprehensive calendar of events.  I use it primarily to schedule travel, trying, as I have all my adult life, to maximize the value of each mile flown, by combining trips to see clients, prospects, book interview subjects — as well as family and friends.  If you click on the link, you’ll notice that there are normally half a dozen of so different energy-related events somewhere in the world — every day.

You’ll also notice that the preponderance of these events concern renewables.  There is an occasional symposium on shale gas, but most of the talk is on solar, wind, geothermal, storage, integration of intermittent sources, clean energy financing, etc.  (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

On October 13th, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and GRM Research released the “U.S. Solar Market Insight” report covering industry action in the first half of 2010. The news is encouraging: the report reveals there is growth in the solar industry despite the struggling capital markets and economy.

“First half solar installations grew beyond expectations as a result of declining prices, continued government support and improving financial conditions,” said Shayle Kann, Managing Director at GTM Research in a press release on October 13th. “In spite of the macroeconomic woes, the U.S. solar industry is on track to have a record year in 2010 for both installations and manufacturing.”

There is a 55% growth in grid installed solar over 2009, with 339 MW grid installed power to date.  The PV (photo-voltaic) market is up 69% over 10 years in the U.S., from 3.9 MW in 2000 to 435 MW installed by the end of 2009. The U.S. placed fourth worldwide in 2009 for installed PV power, after Germany, Japan and Italy.  The chart below illustrates the growth, courtesy the SEIA report:

(more…)

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