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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) published an extensive report (in excess of 400 pages – the link is here)studying several California subdivisions before the housing crash. Entitled “A New Market Paradigm for Zero-energy Homes: The Comparative San Diego Case Study”, the study focused on the builder experience, the market response, home values and cost of electricity in the solar study group and adjacent comparables. It concluded that homes with installed solar systems sold faster than those without solar, and they sold at a higher price (17% higher).

Shea Homes put solar PV and solar thermal systems on half of its homes in a new development.  All 257 of the homes with solar sold within a year, two years faster than expected.  Clarum Homes, another developer in the test group, found that their solar homes sold in 23 months while their non-solar homes sold in 28 months.

NREL conducted extensive interviews with home buyers in the test developments, and the home buyers also signed releases to provide data on energy costs. It was discovered that if solar was already on the home and was factored into the price, buyers were more likely to pick the home with solar over non-solar.  If a home did not have solar already installed but rather included it as an extra upgrade, the decision was usually nixed. It simply became one more decision to be made at time of purchase by overwhelmed buyers.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

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In preparation for my being a guest next week on BlogTalkRadio, in which I’ll be answering questions on electric transportation, I had lunch yesterday with the show’s host Diane Tegarden.  Diane is an author on a wide range of subjects including; renewable energy, environmental concerns, holistic health, women’s issues, and Native Spirituality, and is one of the most energetic, most lovable people I’ve met in a very long time.

The cuisine we picked for our lunch meeting spot: Tibetan/Nepalese. What else? If you happen to be dining in Pasadena, you can’t go wrong with the Tibet Nepal House.

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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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