The solar PV growth curves illustrate the rapid expansion in the deployment of this form for distributed generation (DG). The only conclusion one can draw from looking at these graphs is that, after decades of customers’ putting their toes in …
Author: craigshields
Talking Sustainable Agriculture on North Carolina's Outer Banks
I’m on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for the wedding of my eldest nephew. I’d never been here before, and I was expecting a stretch of land so desolate that I’d have trouble getting online or finding a good …
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Tagged with: Aeroponics, agribusiness, animal husbandry, aquaponics, bioaeroponics, biochemistry, biology, botany, California’s budget surplus, chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides, climatology, Energy conservation, energy efficiency, families under-nourished, food is more that simple sustenance, genetics, geology, health and nutrition, inner-city schools, inorganic chemistry, mechanics of food production, Outer Banks of North Carolina, physics, Sundays New York Times, Sustainable Agriculture, thermodymanics, zoology
Solar Energy Has Some Detractors, But How Valid Are Their Claims?
Frequent commenter Tim Kingston sent me this article from a solar energy nay-sayer and asked my opinion. Tim: I come across this stuff a lot. As I’ve often written, Germany has quite clearly made a mistake with their fantastically large …
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Comparing Energy Costs from Natural Gas and Renewables
Here’s an article that provides some cheery news about the cost of energy in California: due to the early start we got in wind and solar in the 1980s, and the learning curve that we’ve applied over these decades, the …
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Tagged with: cogeneration, combine-cycle gas plants, Comparing Energy Costs from Natural Gas and Renewables, cost of electricity from renewable energy, cost of energy in California, cost of natural gas changes, ecological damage from extracting and burning natural gas, externalities of fossil fuels, Master Limited Partnerships, MLPs, natural gas favorable tax pass-throughs, Obama administration subsidies, power purchase agreements, PPAs, PPAs for electricity from gas, PPAs for renewable energy, price of renewables falling, renewable energy economies of scale, Revenue-Neutral Carbon Tax, subsidies for solar energy
From Guest Blogger BigVid: Nickel Iron Battery
Well I took the plunge and ordered a nickel iron battery pack. There was a lot of hemming and hawing but after a huge amount of research and calculating, I could find no better alternative currently available and no new …
NRDC Has a Good Feeling About New U.S. Energy Secretary
Ever since I interviewed Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) ace Johanna Wald for my first book (Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies), I’ve had only fond respect for what these fine folks do: use the legal process to protect the …
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Electric Transportation and Coal-Fired Power Plants
Here’s an article suggesting that electric transportation saves lives insofar as its environmental benefits reduce global warming, and heat causes more deaths each year. Sadly, this is an oversimplification. As long as coal is our lowest-cost base-load energy source, EVs …
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Tagged with: apathy to environmental damage, clean energy, coal is our lowest-cost base-load energy source, electric transportation, Electric Transportation and Coal-Fired Power Plants, Electric Vehicles, energy efficiency, environmental benefits, EVs are of dubious benefit, EVs selling like hotcakes, falling prices of EV batteries, falling prices of renewable energy, global climate change, global warming, grid-parity with fossil fuels, integrating renewable energy, oil and wars, petrostates, reduction in energy consumption per capita, smart grid, Wind Energy
From Guest Blogger Tom Grant: Wind and Water — A Deadly Hurricane Sandy Combination for Your Home
Hurricane Sandy was one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes to ever strike the United States. Images of flooded subway tunnels, destroyed boardwalks, and millions without power will not soon be forgotten. The storm was also a reminder for people …
Tagged with: Storm surge
Quantifying the Consensus on Anthropogenic Global Warming in the Scientific Literature
Here’s a very scholarly publication documenting a broad consensus on AGW (anthropogenic global warming) in scientific literature. Maybe it’s just a personal thing, but I’ve always hated articles like these. An article about articles? A “meta-article,” I guess it could …
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A Carbon Tax and Its Effects on the Economy
Here’s an article that suggests that a carbon tax could raise trillions of dollars in revenues, but would harm the economy. According to the report from the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) “Without accounting for how the revenues from a carbon …
