On the things I find so fascinating about the migration to renewables is that it represents the confluence of so many different scientific and technological disciplines – especially in the quest to drive down costs. To take an obvious example, …
Breakthroughs in Materials Science Critical to Quest for Renewables Read More »
I’m always amazed at a phenomenon that I presume to be coincidence – that similar things all seem to happen at the same time. No sooner do I publish a few posts of the conservation of energy than a young …
Conservation of Energy – It's Not Just a Good Idea; It's the LAW Read More »
Peter Buzzard comments on my post “Molten Salt Energy Storage” as follows: “That was an interesting article. I didn’t know a combined cycle could be made to be that efficient… What about simply heating water with molten salt in a …
Yesterday’s guest blogger wrote: The idea of collecting solar energy from the upper surfaces of already constructed buildings seems like the least intrusive and most efficient method to utilized light, in my opinion. It doesn’t shade the natural ecosystem and …
My friend Geoffrey Nicholson comments my post “Renewable Energy and Basic Physics”: Craig, I couldn’t agree more. Other than geothermal energy, all the other sources of energy available to us originally came from solar energy and with a rather lossy …
An Engineer Comments on "Renewable Energy and Basic Physics" Read More »
My old friend Peter Buzzard commented on my post “Molten Salt Energy Storage“: “Craig, do you know if a Stirling engine would be more efficient than making steam for a turbine?” To which I reply: I don’t know know much …
Yesterday, I conducted an interview with Dr. V. “Ram” Ramanathan of the Scripps Institution. In the course of the talk, I asked Ram if he would comment on the likely outcome of the upcoming conference in Copenhagen — which he’ll …
In response to my recent piece on solar thermal and molten salt, a reader admonishes: You assume that “molten” salt is universally available over the entire power grid? Get real! Apparently, I’m not describing this as clearly as I thought …
The interviews that I am conducting that will eventually form the chapters of my upcoming book on renewables are, by design, on a variety of different topics. Yet I can’t help noticing that powerful common threads are emerging from the …
I just spoke with Dr. Greg Mitchell of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, as the basis for my book’s chapter on biofuels. Dr. Mitchell’s focus is on algae and cyanobacteria (a related photosynthetic, aquatic organism). He generously gave me a …
