Frequent commenter Larry Lemmert writes: It makes sense to replace some things before they quit working. Computers, light bulbs, water heaters and power plants of all kinds come to mind. At what point should a newer technology replace a functioning …
Author: craigshields
The Migration From Fossil Fuels
Tagged with: air pollution, amortize the cost of the new technology, clean coal, corruption, Ed Rendell, Energy conservation, energy efficiency, environmental degradation, environmentally responsible, Larry Lemmert, migration from fossil fuels, oil companies, Renewable Energy Finance Forum in New York City
Coal As a World Energy Source
Frequent commenter Dr. James Gover writes: It is my understanding that because of: (1) the cost of new coal plants due in part to EPA enforcement of air pollution standards, (2) the lower cost (in comparison to coal) of new …
Electric Vehicles and Coal-Fired Power Plants
On my piece on EVs earlier today, my friend Tom Konrad of AltEnergyStocks.com writes: Given the extra demand from a large number of EVs, how will the utilities supply the extra power? (This could be anything, not just renewables or …
The Migration to Electric Transportation — It's Complicated
Here’s an overly simplistic article that questions the validity of electric vehicles as “green” transportation on the basis that coal is used to charge EVs. And here is one of the comments: “I power my electric car totally from solar …
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Tagged with: ancillary services, are electric vehicles green transportation, average grid-mix, battery energy density, charging EVs, coal-fired power plants, Continental Wind Power, distributed wind, Electric Vehicles, EVs, frequency regulation, gas-fired peaker plants, international competition for non-ferrous metals, midsized wind, migration to electric transportation, off-peak wind energy, scarcity of oil, smart-grid initiative, solar energy, solar PV panels, V2G, vehicle-to-grid, wind curtailment, Wind Energy, wind power
Ocean Acidification and Fossil Fuels
A friend just sent me this piece on ocean acidification and asks: “The tipping point has tipped?” I respond: Could be. In truth, no one knows. I’ve been writing about this for years. In fact, when I’m on a radio …
Denis Diderot's Ideas Lie At the Base of Modern Western Civilization
Last Friday was the birthday of French philosopher Denis Diderot, who said, “Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.” Holy cow, that’s some powerful language. It appears to summarize …
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Young People and Environmentalism
I went to a party last night in the Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles, to celebrate the grand opening of a hair salon. A dear friend, whom I’ve known since kindergarten, married a wonderful Japanese woman who owns …
Urban Commuter Electric Vehicles
I have every confidence that the next decade will see the introduction of numerous kinds of urban commuter electric vehicles that shatter the paradigm of the automobile as we know it now. For obvious reasons, the auto companies – and …
California Space Enterprise Center
My colleague Alan Tratner has asked me to play some sort of yet-to-be-determined role in the California Space Enterprise Center, a project that would develop an 100-acre parcel in Lompoc, CA (near Vandenberg Air Force Base) into a world-class attraction …
Tagged with: California Space Enterprise Center
The "Water-Energy Nexus"
As I continue to learn more about the world’s energy supply, I naturally bump up against water issues, as the two subjects are closely connected across different axes – the so-called “water-energy nexus.” Of course, energy can be extracted from …
