2GreenEnergy: Keeping It Honest and Straight
To clarify matters, I thought I’d respond to two recent comments from attack-dog MarcoPolo, who writes:
It would be more honest if would admit your pecuniary relationship with the technologies you write about.
and
Have you become a lobbyist for one of the giant multi-national turbine manufacturers? This is the forth (sic) article you’ve written about the lack of viability of wave power technology; you seem fixated on wind power. Are you afraid mitigation technologies may harm the interests of “wind power” corporations?
The only financial interest I have in any renewable energy technology is OTEC, as OTECorp they gave me 46K shares of stock in their company as partial payment for a marketing project I did for them a few years ago. I make disclosures every time I discuss a subject in which I have an interest.
Actually, many years ago, I had an interest in small wind, via a similar payment I received from now-defunct Xzeres. As I noted once I studied the industry, small wind is an unmitigated (and unmitigatable) disaster, doomed to failure not so much by the ineptitude of its participants (though there is plenty of that), but by the laws of physics and mathematics.
The reason I write about wave power so often is that, for some reason, they have a constant presence on my Facebook feed, so I continually see the unsupportable claims they make, causing me to get a bit hot under the collar.
Craig,
(Wooof !) There’s nothing wrong with investing in technology in which you believe, in fact, as long as your declare your interest, I believe it should add credibility demonstrating you are willing to put your money to support what you advocate.
Being given stock is a little different, since it raises the issue of being a paid lobbyist (which I’m sure you’re not).
I’m not sure what to make of you relying on Facebook as a major source of information, but it does explain your lack of interest in the hundreds of important development in clean technology occurring all round you, as such development may not make it to your Facebook page.
I realize opinion making in this modern era seems to be based on information from outlets like Twitter, but surely we can do a little better ?
It puzzles me why you would decline to investigate one of the most environmentally important advances in technology, which is taking place in your own backyard ?
The concrete industry is undergoing a ‘green’ revolution !
The minute I read about this development, I flew half way round the world to investigate. This technology is capable of game changing environmental benefit. Concrete creates over 5% of worldwide man-made emissions of CO2.
Companies such as Italcementi (Heidelberg Cement), CarbonCure, and hundreds of others have spent the last decade researching and developing concrete technologies ranging from the use of recycled petroleum waste to pervious concrete, waterless concrete (using waste sulfur from coal plants) and even “smart” concrete using electric and mechanical signals change loading conditions when needed.
Carbon fiber reinforcement provides electric measuring for stress and structural integrity of without installing sensors. Fly ash, bottom ash from thermoelectric power plants,(particularly coal-fired) and slag from Steel industry blast furnaces are becoming valuable ingredients in superior concrete production as these additives increase strength, decrease density, and prolong durability of concrete construction.
Most of these technologies are either already in use or reaching commercialization. The I-35W Saint Anthony Falls Bridge over the Mississippi in Minneapolis is a great example of the use of pozzolans in concrete construction.
Surely you must realize the enormous potential benefits of this type of environmentally friendly technology far exceeds anything possible from “wave power” ?
So again I ask, what has dampened your enthusiasm for “clean tech” and narrowed your focus to merely hating the coal industry and the current administration ?
I’m not “attacking” you, simply trying to reawaken your passion for clean(er)technology !
I think you are too hard on the uses for small scale wind power.
Small scale wind can be very useful for specialized applications in specific locations. I installed several small wind turbines in a rural location to supplement solar power during inclement weather or at night. These units proved very useful providing small scale power production far cheaper than installing transmission lines.
Craig,
Done some thinking about where we differ.
You place great emphasis on the need for government regulations and oppressive legislation to solve environmental problems, where I believe governments can only do so much and it requires private enterprise and individual initiatives to make the sort of substantial advances the general public will accept.
The best example of your way of thinking is the banning of alcohol by the Volstead Act, or the subsequent ferocious war against marijuana. In both cases advocates relied upon government legislation and oppressively harsh penalties to enforce what the proponents of such laws believed were necessary to ‘save’ the populace from ‘evil’.
In both cases, like all puritan advocacy,the ‘cure’ was far worse than the complaint, and resulted in disastrous consequences.
Government regulation and legislation has it’s place, but in the end it will take persuasion to secure support among the general population for the adoption of more attractive clean(er) technology
I’ve no interest in confining myself to a small coterie of fellow travelers, impotently sitting around a cracker barrel impotently agreeing with each other ! I’m still excited by the introduction of real clean(er) technology.
If new technology can really be developed (and it already is) to produce clean(er) coal with environmentally beneficial by-products, I’ll celebrate ! I won’t sit ’round with ear plugs demanding the government abolish coal on ‘moral’ grounds like some old-fashioned die-hard prohibitionist !
I’ll celebrate the enormous impact of those innovators in the Concrete industry for clean(er) concrete. I’ll celebrate, and so should you, because it’s bipartisan and inspires future generations to develop equally beneficial technologies.
I’m sorry if you think I’m an attack dog, or if your friend Glenn in his anti-EV rant thinks I’m a troll. My intention is to persuade you to forget your obsession with the current administration (about which you can do very little), and take more notice of development in the clean(er) tech sector, where you were once so passionate.
The