2GreenEnergy Has A Broad Focus and Results That Are Hard to Measure–But There's Good News Too
I had a wonderful conversation with my old friend Jon LeSage yesterday, in which we talked about our respective business foci. Jon spends most of his time writing about and consulting on the adoption of alternative fuel transportation, which is a fairly broad subject, when you think about it. Lots of different types of government and private sector customers, ever-changing regulations that drive change, and, of course, the fuels themselves: hydrogen, CNG, propane, and so forth.
As I explained, my focus is on helping to advance good ideas in cleantech, which, of course, is even broader. It can mean raising investment capital, marketing (PR, positioning, demand gen, social media and SEO), identification of strategic business partners—and even many things for which I need to call upon my 2GreenEnergy “Associates” for things in which I have no real expertise: IP protection, detailed engineering analyses, etc.
I also explained my daily writing in this blog, which I summarized as follows:
A) Calling the world’s attention to the high-level situation in which our civilization finds itself here in the early 21st Century, i.e., pretending that our environmental and social crises don’t exist. In brief: We are seven billion people living on a tiny blue dot in space. Two billion live in health and nutritional conditions that are unimaginably miserable to those of us living in the developed world. Our entire civilization, rich and poor, faces disaster of biblical proportion, at best case the end of this century, in terms of climate disruption/sea-level rise, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity, and water and food shortages, just to name a few.
and then
B) Pointing the way to the most practical ways of dealing with the situation before it’s too late. Clean energy is important, as are the surrounding concepts: energy efficiency, storage, and transmission, as well as smart grid, and electric transportation. Also critical are an even wider variety of concepts, like population control, sustainable agriculture, water purification, social justice, and dozens of other issues.
“What type of traction have you made, Craig?” Jon asked.
“To be honest, I’m not sure,” I began a tentative response. I explained:
• I’ve had many clients whom I’ve helped advance their cleantech enterprise in one way or another with my skills in business and marketing.
• I’ve had some (limited) success in bringing investment capital to entrepreneurs.
• I’ve sold some books, done some radio and TV shows, and been interviewed by some high-level people who want my advice on all this stuff.
• We’ve had eight or so terrific interns, we’ve connected hundreds of people who have forged mutually productive business relationships, we have 7600 subscribers to the newsletter (the feedback from which is quite positive), and countless thousands of readers who have taken my direction and signed petitions on things that range from pipelines to amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
• Personally, I’ve learned an incredible amount about these subjects and have derived terrific personal satisfaction and reward.
I concluded, “Jon, to answer your question, at the end of the day, I’m just not sure.”
Of course, the fact that I can’t really measure the impact of all this isn’t ideal, but it’s not the end of the world, either. After all, it’s what I believe. It’s astonishing that people can be interested in professional sports, the antics of celebrities, trends in foods and fashion, blockbuster movies, even the stock market. Trust me, no one’s going to be caring too much about how the Dow Jones Industrial Average performed if Wall Street itself (elevation: four feet above sea level) is submerged under water.
Again, this stuff is what I believe. And, as Gandhi said: “To believe in something and not to live it is dishonest.”
Craig,
I believe the work you are doing is fantastic. You believe in what you are doing, and most important you are living it every day.
Gerald Rauch
personally like what your doing – always read you intro on the email – occasionally get into opening the click on part
Hi Craig,
I often read your good writings, and I would also have great caution on analysing what might be “disruptive breakthroughs”.
There are many garbage on free energy indeed, and it´s enough watching them a little in order to realize people behind them usually get caught in a mental loop, or another word, they are nuts indeed.
Nevertheless, there are other things which you, after have passed throught the nut sorting out, come to think: maybe there´s something in this actually…
Last year I came across the “Searl Effect” (google John Searl). Unless there is a collective nut thing on many involved people during many years, there can be something actually…No academic expert has dared to state out and loud: this works!
This can be an example of very vew ideas which some decades later might be acknowledged as a great invention, as happened with Tesla, who almost got killed…
If Sir John Searl happens not to be an old and big nuts, all he and his team say about what´s missing to launch their revolucionary product with flying colors is money. It is where you can help out somehow.
Best,
Vicente Fachina
Dear Craig
As a fact , we appreciate highly what you did , and for the base you create , for future progress , clean tech , need a lot of challenge . You started , you continue , your achievement ,emerge more and more a new way of thinking .
Dr Jamal Kanbarieh
My friend, I’ve long held a great appreciation for who you are, and what you do as a result of who you are.
Don’t. Give. Up.
Craig,
As the others say ~ “You do a great job and are a real service to all of us”. Keep up the great work. We hope to be ready for your assistance soon.
Technotard
Thanks to you and the others for the kind words. I’m most certainly not quitting…. 🙂
Craig in the 7 months or so of following your news stories and insightful releases I see a consistency in your Mission. so it is refreshing to see that you are pursuing your focus and passion keep the Headlights On Bright as it is obvious you create a positive platform from the varied and many readers and contributors…Stay on Course
Gracie
Craig, you wrote; “we’ve connected hundreds of people who have forged mutually productive business relationships” yet you have failed me and my innovation. I suspect it’s because you are like most in your field you do not recognize the out-of-the-box innovation that has what it takes to disrupt the status quo and bring improvement in all the areas you mention from sea level rise to health and nutritional conditions that are unimaginably miserable to those living in the undeveloped world to avoiding disaster of biblical proportion this century, in terms of climate disruption/sea-level rise, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity, and water and food shortages, just to name a few. My firms repowering tech can bring improvement in all those areas yet it is not recognized by those who like you are benefitting by the old order that grow nearer and nearer each day to bringing down humanity. I see you get a lot of pats-on-the-back here but you won’t get one from me until you rise up to where you and others think you are.
You may recall that, a few years ago, I introduced you and your idea to my biomass expert, and he didn’t see any value there. If you want to continue to promote the concept here, that’s OK with me, but I’ve already done everything I’m going to with it.
We may need to solve some problems not by removing the cause but by designing the way forward even if the cause remains in place.
~ Edward de Bono
de Bono points out that the term “problem solving” implies that there is a single problem to respond to, and that it can be resolved. That doesn’t take into account situations where there is really no problem at all, where a large and/or complex problem exists that cannot be completely resolved no matter what is done (like global warming and climate change) and situations where many problems exist that could all be dealt with at once, but many still perceive themselves to be benefitting from the old order.
“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things for the reformer has enemies in all who profit from the old order.”
–Niccolo Machiavelli, 1513
“Insanity is repeating the same behavior over and over and
expecting different results”
~Albert Einstein
To put it another way; it’s insanity to believe we can solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
~Les Blevins
Climate change has psychological, moral, social, community, ethical, spiritual, political, personal as well as scientific and economic, dimensions. Available climate change solutions are therefore multi-dimensional and therefore difficult for most people to get their minds around.
Humans are driven towards species survival. Our big brain has enabled us to evolve beyond the primitive to complex means of survival. I have no doubt that we must and will move faster in the right direction as the climate change squeeze tightens its grip on our lives. The challenge remains for us to move a lot faster and a lot more effectively to avert runaway catastrophic climate change. Awareness has progressed. It is now in our hands. For the most part people didn’t recognize the innovations for what they were that Henry Ford and others produced a hundred years ago, and as they say, what goes around comes around…
Three facts you need to factor in:
#1)
Convergence – New economic metrics must converge the needs of policymakers and system operators. The survey indicates that policymakers and system operators place diverging demands on renewable developers. Qualitative data stress that securing political will depends on affordability, while in a high renewables future developers must also engage with the increasing system operation challenges.
#2)
Rebalancing – New rules are needed to rebalance the opportunities and challenges for developers and system operators. Developers, independent power producers and original equipment manufacturers are relishing the opportunities brought about by the shift to a high renewables system, while system operators and utilities identify themselves as being challenged by the transition.
#3)
Expansion – New entrepreneurial solutions will expand the electricity business into a true ‘internet of energy’. Current high interest in energy storage, which 66 percent of respondents select as a top 3 lever for a high renewables future, is an example of the increasingly blurry lines between power, transport and heat. Meanwhile, respondents’ emphasis on smart grids underscores the role for IT in helping to manage the variability of renewables. The electricity sector is becoming more interconnected with the wider energy system, and also with newer sectors such as IT.
My firm (AAECorp.) has invented, patented, tested and further developed a new concept low-carbon energy technology we’ve designed for serving as the core technology for far cleaner renewable energy production systems and energy efficiency improvements across the North American landscape and around the world. AAEC’s novel new concept technology consists of a biomass, fossil fuel, and municipal waste combustion, gasification and pyrolysis conversion technology that can provide scalable heat and power requirements as well as both biofuel and biochar production for stand-alone use or as backup for alternative energy systems that depend on solar, wind or other intermittent sources of energy, and in this way it will help enable a doubling of the deployment of alternative energy projects around the world in coming decades.
For AAEC to bring it’s innovation to the challenge we need someone or some entity to step forward and join us. It could be a Ted Turner, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates or a foundation or a city or a county or sizable commercial concern like a major auto maker or a government of another country like India, Japan, China etc., etc. if there is no one here in America that can recall the era before the IT bubble and grasp the current conditions.
OK if everyone has clammed up I’ll continue by bringing up the sea level rise and ocean acidification issues. There is no way any innovation in solar or wind energy can have any significant effect on the oceans unless it has the ability to double solar and wind energy deployments every 5 years or so going forward and the way to do that is through a carbon tax and the availability of some other resource that can back up both solar and wind energy when the sun is set and the wind dies. This resource must of course be affordable and have the ability to utilize any combination of dispatchable energy resources such as available fossil fuels, biomass and wastes that is available for dispatching at the site and that can power all human energy needs whether its for power to recharge e-autos or power your appliances or provide whatever renewable fuels a person’s personal transportation requires in a developed country or add power to village mini grids in under developed countries. It would be a huge plus if this conversion technology has the ability to produce energy by extraction of CO2 from the atmosphere as well as reduce emissions to the atmosphere, something that no energy source can do outside of one that runs on area available biomass and wastes.
Craig,
As a simple lineman who sees the world and oppurtunities in solving our problems as you do, I feel you and your set up do a good job of helping me look at ideas(good or bad), to understand the negative concepts masked by the self interest of the day, and to understand potential game changing new ideas from the different perches of our world. Your work gives a format to let people listen, talk, and possibly act on the most important ideas of our time. Thanks krum
perches of our world?
Craig, you said; “You may recall that, a few years ago, I introduced you and your idea to my biomass expert, and he didn’t see any value there. If you want to continue to promote the concept here, that’s OK with me, but I’ve already done everything I’m going to with it”? If so I question your position because when something really new and innovative comes along you can expect 90+ percent of the so called “experts” in the field not to relate to it at first glance simply because it’s from out of the box thinking that they didn’t happen to be the one that came up with it. What I say is if he didn’t see any value there he’s among the 90 percent who are benefitting from the old order and doesn’t want changes to come about. He dismissed my innovation without even asking how my innovation deals with any of the things I’ve mentioned above and apparently you see yourself as benefitting from the status quo as well or you would have at least had some discussion going between the three of us before writing me off.
“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things for the reformer has enemies in all who profit from the old order.”
–Niccolo Machiavelli, 1513
As I posted earlier;
We may need to solve some problems not by removing the cause but by designing the way forward even if the cause remains in place.
~ Edward de Bono
de Bono points out that the term “problem solving” implies that there is a single problem to respond to, and that it can be resolved. That doesn’t take into account situations where there is really no problem at all, where a large and/or complex problem exists that cannot be completely resolved no matter what is done (like global warming and climate change) and situations where many problems exist that could all be dealt with at once, but many still perceive themselves to be benefitting from the old order.
Craig, do you want to refresh my memory as to why your expert didn’t see any merit in the new concept technology I’m developing and give me the opportunity to respond to that issue or those issues owing to the fact that I don’t recall that he said anything that was passed along to me about why or what problems he felt my technology development does not and could not adequately deal with? Could it be that I’m a bit more informed and knowledgeable about my tech development and it’s merits than he is?
He failed to see how what you offered was an improvement over existing technologies. Re: what you write at the close here, yes, anything’s possible, but I’m not going there again.
Again, I don’t object to your promoting your ideas here. In fact, perhaps you’d like to summarize them in a guest blog post. I’ll send you an invitation.
Craig, you and your unmentioned contact are obviously not mechanics. All mechanics will understand the utility of a complete socket set containing 1/4″, 3/8″, 1/2″, 3/4″ and I’ll stop at 1″ drive ratchet wrenches and all their matching accessories over individual end wrenches. I say this is the essence of my technology. Like ratchet wrenches my technology can be sized for the job and can be fitted with extensions such that it will work at combustion, gasification and/or pyrolysis and can be used at the residence scale or at the county scale and can use fuels as small as sawdust and as large as large round bales and can even process any and all sizes of tires without shredding them and can process all types of sledges and liquids and can produce bio-char and can be produced in modular form or be mobile such that it can go down the highway or railroad or into the back country. Ask your “expert” if he picked up on all that and if he says yes ask him tor the name of any other company that offers any technology that offers such a diverse approach. Oh and it can be made in any country in the world such that thousands of units can be produced every day that are already close to where they need to be put to use.
He didn’t seem to think this was as big a deal as you do. But perhaps someone reading this who wants to get involved will take an interest and call you.
Lets hope so.
There is something else I need to add to what I’ve already said. And that is my novel new concept conversion system can be used to produce clean energy using coal as a primary fuels and as you may know any revolution in energy systems must provide a way that coal can be used in the fuels mix to produce clean energy and I can explain that feature to anyone who is interested in investing or partnering with my firm. And by the way sledges was simply a typo in my last post. Obviously I meant sludges but it came out as “sledges” due to auto correction.
Craig:
I have read your recent blog and was wondering if you presented our Technology to your
bio-mass expert? It seems odd that to have a biomass system that can burn any organic material as it’s fuel and not capture nor even emit carbon dioxide nor air derived nitrogen oxide does not spark a response or question how this revolutionary process is possible.
Remember because we do not rely upon the grid we can utilize the system in urban or rural settings. Not only can it supply combined heat and power to factories, hotels, shopping centers, business parks but it is perfect for electric car refueling stations. We know that those who cannot think outside the box will not believe that this is possible but you are an innovative thinker and we are sure that you can see it’s potential. If you have not already presented this to your expert, please do and let’s raise some capital to take it forward. Of course we are open to any questions. nsreef@cs.com
No, I didn’t. If I’m going to be involved with you folks, I need to substantiate your claims, which seem extremely far-fetched to me. Can you supply me a few case studies with real-world customers I can interview?
What do you mean by “You Folks” – did you think I have others involved? Well you are dead wrong if you did. Of course my claims seem far fetched to people of little imagination who’ve been sitting at a desk and are not and have not been engaged in mechanical endeavors. I’ve alluded to that issue with my mechanic knowing about the usefulness concepts of a complete socket set if you recall. It’s a catch 22 for me and my project. When I talk with mechanics and tech savvy people they get where I’m coming from,, but they have no decision making ability on financial decisions and when I talk to people like you I get blank stares because although you may speak finance you don’t have any understanding of technical issues and therefore need to rely on your so called experts. I once had a consultant here who had consulted for the Tennessee Valley Authority on fuels combustion systems who was so impressed with the furnace I’ve developed and that I showed him he declared what I’ve developed as having the best “heat cycle” of any technology he had ever seen. But he was decidedly mechanical and technically inclined which of course meant he had no money to invest because there is this huge divide between people who think like me and people who think like you.
I think Craig’s biomass “expert” has better things to do than to come out from behind his “expert” status and get involved here, like maybe try to make inroads for his own pet project. Ya think?
“Humanity has pushed the world’s climate system to the brink, leaving itself only scant time to act. We are at about five minutes before midnight.” — Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2013
If you’re like me, you are feeling a strong sense of responsibility to empower a big fix for the global warming issue before it is too late, a fix on the scale of the Marshal Plan that enabled the rebuilding of Europe after World War Two. Scientists now report that we only have a few years left to transform our society to a renewable energy (zero-carbon) economy if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change. So what should our role be in creating this all-important transformation? And who among us can deny this need – Les Blevins
Oh sorry.
I thought when you wrote: “No, I didn’t. If I’m going to be involved with you folks, I need to substantiate your claims, which seem extremely far-fetched to me. Can you supply me a few case studies with real-world customers I can interview?” I thought you were addressing me. So I wrote back saying;
What do you mean by “You Folks” – did you think I have others involved? Well you are dead wrong if you did. Of course my claims seem far fetched to people of little imagination who’ve been sitting at a desk and are not and have not been engaged in mechanical endeavors. I’ve alluded to that issue with my mechanic knowing about the usefulness concepts of a complete socket set if you recall. It’s a catch 22 for me and my project. When I talk with mechanics and tech savvy people they get where I’m coming from,, but they have no decision making ability on financial decisions and when I talk to people like you I get blank stares because although you may speak finance you don’t have any understanding of technical issues and therefore need to rely on your so called experts. I once had a consultant here who had consulted for the Tennessee Valley Authority on fuels combustion systems who was so impressed with the furnace I’ve developed and that I showed him he declared what I’ve developed as having the best “heat cycle” of any technology he had ever seen. But he was decidedly mechanical and technically inclined which of course meant he had no money to invest because there is this huge divide between people who think like me and people who think like you.
Les,
You’ve commented over 2,600 words in four days in this post. Since you seem to have ample time to devote to communicating your ideas in this forum, you might take note of Craig’s statement to you:
“I don’t object to your promoting your ideas here. In fact, perhaps you’d like to summarize them in a guest blog post. I’ll send you an invitation.”
Perhaps now would be a good opportunity to collect your thoughts, put together a cogent brief on your company, and your tech, and take Craig up on his offer. It’s likely more people will see and read (and perhaps respond) that than will read the long string of comments on this thread.
Just a suggestion.
Thanks Cameron. I’ve considered starting a blog but I’m biding my time until a small sampling of people (like we have here in Craig’s blog) to show some genuine interest in preserving the small amount of survivability we have left, or alternatively a slice of the monetary pie that’s on the table and within easy reach if/when we collectively develop the right mindset. Alternatively perhaps someone else would agree to blog in cooperation with me as a respondent to others who could bounce their thoughts off of me as a proponent of the particular approach I’ve got to offer.
$1 Trillion: As an Annual Investment Goal Puts Climate Solutions Within Reach according to the IEA which pegs cost of addressing climate change at $1 Trillion or 1.3 percent of global output of goods and services. The investment would also stoke a clean economy.
By Elizabeth Douglass, InsideClimate News
While $1 trillion sounds like a lot, knowing the figure is good news, according to climate activists, investment experts and United Nations organizers of the next round of global climate talks. Worldwide, almost $4 trillion a year will need to be invested over that time anyway in electric grids, power plants and energy efficiency, the IEA says. In a global economy of $75 trillion, $1 trillion works out to 1.3 percent of the world’s annual output of goods and services, or about $140 a person. The calculation also focuses the discussion on investment—suggesting the potential for returns and profits—rather than on costs for disaster response and losses to rising oceans.
“One of the things we’re trying to show is that this is an opportunity story in response to the horror of the risks we’re facing,” says Sean Kidney, chief executive officer of the Climate Bonds Initiative, a London-based nonprofit promoting large-scale investment in a low-carbon world. “We’re in a big hole. The key thing is for government and investors to sit down and work it out. It’s got to be a grand collaboration to get out of the hole.”
Putting a price tag on the energy sources, transportation systems, energy-saving steps and reductions in carbon-based greenhouse gas emissions provides a framework for discussion, according to the IEA, corporate leaders and others. It has also shifted the perspective of companies and investors. On Sept. 23, the UN is hosting a Climate Summit in New York that’s meant to showcase new climate-related pledges from governments and to boost support for an international climate treaty. Next year in Paris, negotiators hope to sign a successor agreement to the expired Kyoto climate accord.
Importance of 2 Degrees
Nations participating in the treaty talks will attempt to work out a plan for keeping the average temperature of the world’s atmosphere from climbing by 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since the dawn of the Industrial Age in the 18th Century. The rapid increase in burning of fossil fuels over the past 2½ centuries has poured billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere, causing surface air temperatures to warm by 0.8 degrees on average, according to climate scientists.
Stopping the increase short of a 2-degree rise would allow the planet to dodge the most damaging effects of climate change, scientists say. The Earth’s atmosphere is now on track to warm 4 degrees by the end of the century, triggering a range of mostly irreversible changes, leading to famine, water shortages, disease and wholesale migration away from coasts and expanding deserts, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Nations involved in the climate treaty negotiations agreed to the goal of holding the increase under 2 degrees, but most countries probably will fall short of their goals for reduced emissions by 2020. Greenhouse gases have continued to rise, largely because of the continued expansion in burning of fossil fuels, which is responsible for 70 percent of climate-change emissions, according to the IEA. Warming is a function of the accumulation of carbon dioxide and other gases, so every new coal-fired power plant brings the 2-degree limit closer.
As I see it what Craig offered me is a chance to blend in, which (as I see it) would be taking the easy way. I’m looking for people who want to join together and work together in the cause of protecting God’s Creation.
We know that God tells us that there will be a difference in the outcome between those who serve him and those who do not.
It is very easy to give in to the patterns of the world – to blend in without noticing the compromise we are making at the time.
When Jesus calls on us to follow him, he warns us how difficult it will be to choose the righteous way to eternal salvation. God knows the patterns and demands of the world we face, and He knows how very difficult it is not to blend in and do as the world does. Jesus warns us, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to our destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to eternal life, and only a few find it.” (Mathew 7:13-14)
THE RIGHTEOUS WAY IS TO JOIN TOGETHER RATHER THAN TO BLEND IN – THERE IS A DIFFERENCE..
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
~ Anne Frank
“We have tomorrow bright before us like a flame.”
~ LANGSTON HUGHES
Craig:
Thank you for your reply. We are extremely satisfied with your concerns.
We now know that it was because of doubt that you did not previously
respond rather than a lack of interest. Yes, we can satisfy you that we are
revolutionary and real but it will not be done in a public forum. Please use
my personal address and tell me how to communicate directly with you.
We promise that it is not far fetched but real and tested. Thanks and will
wait to hear from you. nsreef@cs.com
OK, Norman. Please see my email.