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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change — No Comments ↓

Re: the meme here, a reader offers this dare:  I challenge you to go to a climate science convention, get up on stage, present this image and then give a talk on why you think it is true… and then take questions from the scientists in the room.

Yes, he’d be laughed off the stage, but not for the reason you might think.  The truth here lies in the deliberately dishonest way that the data is presented.

The ice on the Antarctic is shrinking fast, but the ice in the oceans that surround the continent are remaining essentially unchanged.

Here’s an article called Antarctic Ice Loss Is Significant, Contrary to Claims.  An excerpt:

Antarctica is losing ice mass to the ocean, contributing to global sea level rise. But a popular video misrepresented work focused on Antarctic ice shelves — which float in the sea at the edges of the continent — to incorrectly suggest that “it is unclear if Antarctica is losing any ice on balance.”

The Antarctic ice sheet is a vast mass of ice, accumulated over millennia via snowfall, that sits atop bedrock, covering nearly all of Antarctica. As the ice spreads outward and meets the ocean, some of it begins to float. These floating ice platforms, which surround about three-quarters of Antarctica, are called ice shelves.

Antarctic land ice loss into the ocean is an increasingly important contributor to global sea level rise. In contrast, ice shelf loss doesn’t directly cause sea level rise, as the ice is already floating in the ocean and displacing water.

In actuality, there is no climate “debate.”  There are exhaustive studies, the results of which have been published in peer-reviewed papers over the last 50+ years, and there are folks, including Big Oil, whose political agendas focus on referring to these scientists as “liars.”  That’s the raw simplicity, pathetic as it may be.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — No Comments ↓

Following the death of Jimmy Carter, we Boomers harken back to the times of his one-term presidency.  We wonder how it’s possible that treason in the United States’ highest office, in this case clearly committed by Ronald Reagan to defeat Carter, is never prosecuted.

Even after it was revealed that Reagan had prolonged our agony so as to secure his election in 1980, was there any chance whatsoever that our Department of Justice would step in?  Eff no. He was the Gipper, beloved by Americans who couldn’t have possibly cared what crime he may have committed.

Forty-five years, later, we have Donald Trump urinating on our country and all its institutions. The only difference is that now, we’re that much further away suggesting that a U.S. president should be held accountable for his crimes.

We’re also far more poorly educated, both academically and morally.

Good luck, America.  You’re going to need it.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics — No Comments ↓

I just met a guy who’s been in the solar business since 2002, working on projects that are in the 8-figure range.  He mentioned a recent $27 million deal, so that means commercial and/or industrial clients.

After expressing my admiration for what he’s done, I asked what changes he’s noticed, and he replied, unsurprisingly, that the cost of goods has fallen by more that 50%–probably closer to 70%.

Then I asked him about his concerns about solar’s future.  He said that Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act has been incredibly powerful.  It re-instated the 30% investment tax credit that had expired, and added on another 20% if the project uses U.S. made materials.  He continued, “I don’t know where you are politically, but the Trump administration has vowed to repeal Biden’s work, and bring all this to a halt.  This would be a terrible blow to the progress we’ve made.”

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — No Comments ↓

Some people think that Trump always wins, but that’s fallacious.  It’s true that he has always won (in the past), but, to use an analogy, every team is undefeated until it loses its first game.

Nixon had plenty of congressional support until he didn’t.

We shouldn’t be at all surprised if the U.S. political climate shifts away from Trump and he winds up fleeing on a helicopter, just like Nixon did.  Taking off from the same spot on the White House lawn just ahead of a prosecutorial body that would have otherwise sent him to die in prison.

Re: Cheney and Kinzinger, their political futures are still to be determined as well.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles — No Comments ↓

Readers who wish to learn more about the workings of electric motors will enjoy this video, which explores the idea of an electric V8 engine.

Its creator asks: “Is an electric V8 engine a good idea?”

The answer for someone curious about the subject or looking for a cool science fair project, the answer is of course.  Everyone else needs to ask, does it have any advantages over the standard motors, e.g., AC induction motors that we find in our EVs today? Is it more efficient in transferring electrical energy to kinetic energy?  Could it be more reliable and have lower costs of maintenance?

If you check out the video, you’ll see that the answer is clearly no.  It has dozens upon dozens of parts that are flying around at breakneck speeds.  The whole thing looks like an explosion waiting to happen.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — No Comments ↓

Warning: In just 50 years, we went from Jimmy Carter, a man of honor, to Donald Trump.

We need to re-elevate our moral sensibilities.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles — No Comments ↓
Here’s an article on the use of EVs as a tool to power our homes and/or send electricity back to the grid.  My comments are in italics.
A study by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute shows how electric vehicles (EVs) could double as home storage batteries using bidirectional charging.  Yes, this is called “vehicle-to-grid,” aka “V2G.” 
It was an interesting concept in the 2000-aughts but has gone essentially nowhere over the last two decades, largely because the amount of electrical energy in an EV’s battery is not worth the inconvenience and the cost of the vast amount of technology necessary to make all his happen.
Also, let’s suppose that an EV owner wants to commit to having a certain number of  kWhrs taken from his battery every day at a given time, but his plans change, he needs to use his car for some purpose that he couldn’t have foreseen, and now he’s stranded.  That’s not an appealing deal.  
Most EVs in Germany are driven for just 1 hour daily, leaving 23 hours of idle time. During this downtime, EVs could stabilize energy grids by storing and sharing power when demand peaks.
The amount of time EVs are not driven is totally irrelevant to this discussion.   
This strategy could boost solar and wind energy use, as EVs could store excess daytime energy and release it at night.
Sorry, but no.  Part of the reason that V2G will never be implemented is that it would have an infinitesimal impact on our grid-mix, while coming along with a huge price tag.  
For individual EV owners, this could mean annual savings of €31 to €780 by sharing stored energy with their home or the grid.
Doubtless, if an individual EV owner wants to make this investment, there will be some return.  €31/year is less than $0.09 per day.  That doesn’t sound too motivating to me, but maybe I’m just a hard sell. 
BTW, I can’t find this “study.”  I’m thinking that, if it exists at all, it was written about 20 years ago, when this subject was actually under consideration. 
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business — No Comments ↓

Here’s Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman’s recent column in the New York Times addressing the oft-discussed issue: Are efforts to achieve environmental sustainability necessarily damaging to the strength of the economy?

As usual, as we dig deeper into subjects like this, we learn that there are important complexities.

In this case, some efforts to decarbonize open up huge economic opportunities.

Krugman uses the “carrot and stick” metaphor and points out that carrots like financial bonanzas tends to work better than sticks, like taxes.  Yet, in reality, our society is too far from where it was a few decades ago, where the consumption of fossil fuels becomes extremely unattractive the moment someone is asked to cover the costs of the environmental damage associated with climate change, ocean acidification, and loss of biodiversity.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business — No Comments ↓

Is it possible that this is a more complicated issue than the way it’s framed here?

If you want to ignore all the technological, economic, and political issues associated with renewables, nuclear, and fossil fuels (coal in this case), and phrase the question as it’s posed at left, that’s fine, but all you’re saying is that you have a perhaps 3rd grade understanding of a subject that is the focus of some of the greatest minds on the planet.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science — No Comments ↓

Perhaps the only advantage to living in the 21st Century is the expanse of technology that extends our lifespans, while making our existences healthier, more productive, and more rewarding.

Ironically, we Americans are actually retrogressing when it comes to the implementation of science.  In particular, the breakthroughs in vaccinations that were made in the mid-to-late 20th Century which virtually eliminated many of the dread diseases that, as shown below, were taking a terrible toll.

Now, we are about to install a 14-year heroin addict as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, who believes that vaccinations are “dangerous,” and has pledged to ban several of them.

 

 

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