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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Passionate global warming skeptic Alex C. writes:

Scientific evidence, facts, truth, and “global warming” is NOT a democratic activity where whoever has the most votes wins … There is only one truth at it is not up to a vote. When so much politics, money, and power are involved it is clear that left wing socialists or environmenalist extremists could care less about facts. It is becoming clear that man made CO2 has not caused global warming…Please avoid using majority rule to make decisions.

Again (and I swear this is true) my blogging software asked me to approve your comment — even though I’ve set it so as to let everything but the most obvious spam through uncensored. Apparently WordPress seems to think you’re an extremist!  🙂  Personally, I think you have your rights to your own opinions.

Having said that, let me tell this story. When I decided to enter the GW discussion a couple of years ago, I told a few friends about my concerns. “A 400 million year correlation between CO2 and global temperature doesn’t mean that CO2 increase causes temperature increase. What if temperature increase causes a CO2 increase? What if they’re both driven by a third parameter?” I asked.

My friends — each one — urged me to do my own investigation.

My response, which I would give again now, is simply this: I don’t have the hundreds of thousands of manhours to retrace all these scientists’ steps. I have to decide this for myself as I would if I were a judge hearing a civil case, i.e., trust in the veracity of the testimony of credible people, and base my decision (as I think you need to base yours) on the preponderance of the evidence.

What seems most credible here? That the vast majority of climatologists are leftists? That Marxist ideologies are shaping interpretation of enormous amounts of data in the halls of MIT, Cal Tech, and Scripps? Sorry, I don’t think so.

But you raise a good point. Will believing in the preponderance of the evidence in front of us always bring us the right answer? Of course not. It can fail us at any time, just as it did the people who believed the earth was flat 500 years ago.  But it’s the best that I — or anyone else — can do.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

Dr. David Mills, founder and chief scientist of solar thermal leader Ausra, was generous enough with his time to help me with the chapter on concentrated solar power in my upcoming book on renewables. I happened to be watching this lecture he gave recently in his homeland (Australia) which I heartily recommend. It is entirely non-technical and accessible to anyone, while providing a worthy history of renewable energy – as well as a solid, well-reasoned direction for the future.

In it, he speaks about the safety and overall viability of nuclear energy, and provides essentially the same one that I always do: we already have a huge fusion reactor with an endless supply of fuel, no problems with operational safety, no million-year hazard associated with storing spent fuel, and no open invitations for terrorists or rogue states to attack, or use the technology to build bombs. It’s called the sun. Best of all, it’s separated from the Earth’s surface by a distance of 93 million miles – which is perfect; it’s far enough away to be safe, while close enough to provide us with more than enough clear power — insofar as we need to harvest only one out of every 6000 photons that is received at the Earth’s surface in order to address all the needs of all 7 billion of us.

This may sound like a flippant answer, but I don’t believe it to be. The cost of reaping this power is coming down every month. If we retain our focus on perfecting a few technologies for capturing that energy; we’ll be there very shortly. I urge readers to learn about solar thermal; I know you’ll share in my optimism.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

PhotobucketI just posted this piece on renewable energy business plans on RenewableEnergyWorld.com.  In essence, I encourage everyone trying to make their way in the clean energy industry to be honest with themselves about their strengths and weaknesses, and consider selling or licensing their technology to a larger enterprise if this will foster the development of their technology.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

You’ve developed an alternative energy concept that will revolutionize the way power is generated and distributed to an energy-starved planet.

You have a renewable energy idea that could change the world.

But there is ONE PROBLEM:

You’re a VISIONARY…

  • not a businessman
  • not a financier
  • not a patent attorney
  • not a human resources executive
  • not a manufacturer
  • not a distributor

Fortunately, there is a simple solution. And 2GreenEnergy can help you achieve it:

SELL OR LICENSE YOUR IDEA.

(Which is best and what’s involved?)

Determining what’s right for your unique circumstances starts with a phone call, or by sending an email, to set up a free consultation.

Hit CONTACT and let 2GreenEnergy help you pursue one of these two ideas:

1) Renewable Energy Mergers and Acquisitions

Should your idea be sold to a large, fully funded organization that wants to bolster its position technologically and gain further competitive advantage?

2) Clean Energy Technology Licensing

Should you establish one or more carefully protected relationships with large enterprises, which have established manufacturing practices and existing, well-supported distribution channels?

Click CONTACT for a free, no-obligation consultation with Craig Shields, 2GreenEnergy’s Senior Consultant in Mergers/Acquisitions and Technology Licensing

Craig Shields is a renewable energy business consultant with over 25 years experience helping technology companies make the right strategic moves. He’s worked with venture capitalists, angel investors, investment bankers, and most of the world’s Fortune 500 technology companies, including Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, 3M, 3Com, CSC, AT&T, Sony, Pioneer Electronics, Philips Electronics, FedEx, Xerox, National Semiconductor, and Hewlett-Packard.

Just click CONTACT to speak with Craig Shields, for a free, no-obligation consultation.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

2GREENENERGY: MAKING CLEAN POWER WORK

Need help applying for your renewable energy grant?

Click CONTACT for a free, no-obligation conversation with a professional grant-writer from 2GreenEnergy

Talk to Vicki Brace, 2Green Energy’s Renewable Energy Grant Writer.

Ms. Brace has been actively working in alternative energy and clean technologies for almost 30 years. She carries with her abiding passion for our environment, and brings a level of experience created by 25+ years of writing grant proposals and submissions. This, of course, is of greater importance than ever before due the presence of enormous qualities of DoE stimulus funding.

Vicki earned her BS from Linfield College in Oregon in Political Science, and holds a Masters degree in in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Northern Kentucky University; she is currently working towards her Ph.D. Vicki writes grants for the EPA, DoE, and EERE/APRA-E, as well as private foundations, and stands ready to help 2GreenEnergy clients tap into DoE stimulus.

Click “Contact” to enter your name, email, and phone number; someone will call you back within 24 hours.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

2GREENENERGY: MAKING CLEAN POWER WORK

Large renewable energy project?

Need help with permitting?

PPAs?

Grid tie?

2GreenEnergy associates have decades of experience in advising clients on utility-scale wind and solar (PV, solar thermal, and hybrid) projects. Whether the program you’re contemplating is a gigawatt or just a few megawatts, let us help you through the rough waters that surround permitting and making deals with Energy Service Providers.

Want a free, no-obligation conversation with a renewable energy project consultant?

Click “Contact” to enter your name, email, and phone number; someone will call you back within 24 hours.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Chip Aadlund writes:

CO2 is a problem and a huge one, but it doesn’t compare with chemical pollution. From 1973 to 1999 childhood cancers increased 26 percent. Acute childhood lymphcytic cancer is up 61 percent, brain cancer up 50 percent and bone cancer is up 39 percent. this does not include the problems caused by the chemicals leaching into food and water from containers causing dramatically reduced numbers of male babies along with reproductive issues.

Chip: Thanks very much for this. I’m reminded of some of my previous posts on the externalities associated with fossil fuels and how to quantify them. Ironically, it’s far easier to find numbers for the things that carry nowhere near the level of tragic impact as the things you’re talking about here. For example, we add up the cost of treating a case of lung cancer, but ignore the suffering of the victim and his family.

I believe that in 50 years the energy companies will be subjected to the aggression that the tobacco industry is receiving today in terms of class-action lawsuits and broad societal condemnation. We see it starting already, with pieces like 60 Minutes treatment of coal ash a couple of months ago.  (This was the quintissential 60 Minutes hatchet job — but it’s a good sample of the scorn that’s coming down the pike — both fair and unfair.)

I point out to Chevron and its shareholders that the average wrongful death award in the US is in measured in seven figures; that adds up fast, people.

People talk about the high cost of PV, wind, geothermal, etc. But that’s only because most of the true cost of coal and oil is passed along to the family of some anonymous eight-year old kid slowly dying in a hospital bed. Given any even remotely fair-minded treatment of renewables, clean energy is the bargain of the century.

Thanks again for writing.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

A reader points out:

Craig, you seem to think that there should be a single best solution for clean energy. I would agree with you if you qualified your assertion to state that there is a single best solution for a given site. For example, a mountain top with high steady winds may be crying out for a a wind farm, but a wooded valley location with almost no wind would probably benefit from a low head hydro plant…..

I acknowlege that I am in a slim minority of those who do not favor a wide variety of renewables. I’m optimistic that we as a civilization will find our way out of the mess we’ve created for ourselves. But I find it hard to believe that this solution will come in the form of 8 – 10 different renewable technologies.

You raise a good point, of course, in that different sites lend themselves to different renewable energy technologies: the plains support wind, the mountains geothermal, the deserts solar, etc. And if you’re truly a “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” type of guy, maybe you really DO want all of them. But I ask: Why?

Let’s keep our eye on the ball.  All we need to do is harvest and distribute 1/6000th of the sun’s energy. I grant that this can be done through a variety of means, but if we can choose one or two that meet all our criteria (low-cost, scaleable, safe, clean, etc.) do we really need to develop and support them all?

Of course, all this does presuppose a cost-effective way of distributing power around the continent.  As I’ve written elsewhere, I believe that we have to upgrade our grid — even in the absence of deeper penetration of renewable energy.  As an integral part of this upgrade, I favor high voltage DC power transmission (VHDC), minimizing line losses over long distances.

I’m not a futurist by trade. But I’ll go on record right now and make a bold prediction. Long before the midpoint of this century, the technology surrounding solar thermal will have matured to such a point that it will represent a clean and bankable path to the end of the world energy conundrum.  At a certain point soon thereafter, 90+% of the Earth’s population will enjoy low-cost and very clean energy brought about by a combination of solar thermal (concentrated solar power), molten salt energy storage and VHDC power transmission.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

PhotobucketI posted this optimistic year-end piece on RenewableEnergyWorld. The availability of solutions to our planet’s many woes is really a function of the number of people who get involved and insist that their voices be heard. And, as I’ve noted in that post, a big part the current zeitgeist is really about paying attention and communicating what you see. That bodes well.

Happy new year, everyone.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

PhotobucketNew Years is a time-honored opportunity to make mid-course corrections in one’s activities in life. To that end, let me talk briefly about the business side of 2GreenEnergy, and note that all of us here at 2GreenEnergy intend to make this even more robust in 2010.

I hope readers have noticed our “Associates” page – but I would understand if they hadn’t. To date, we haven’t done too much promotion of this robust team of professionals, focused on helping renewable-energy-based businesses establish themselves and expand into prosperity.

In establishing this roster, we’ve tried to contemplate the entire gamut business activities that could apply to new and existing businesses in this market space – from initial seed capital, market research, protection of intellectual property, and R&D – all the way through channels development, marketing and sales – with heavy emphasis on Internet/search marketing and social media.

Through the coming year, readers can expect to see case studies of our work for our clients, in the hopes that such reports will provide encouragement for others. Earning profit in clean energy really can be done. After all, what should one infer from the fact that companies like General Electric, Siemens, and ExxonMobil are all running 100 miles per hour in the direction of renewables? I’ll grant that they weren’t pioneers in alternative energy, but they’re certainly no fools. And don’t forget that each one is managed by a board of directors that is just as insistent on short-term profit from sound, bankable business practices as it was 10 years ago.

Just as we here at 2GreenEnergy are sharpening our business focus in the New Year, I urge you to do the same. Please feel free to write or call, and let’s talk about what we may be able to accomplish together.

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