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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Divesting from Fossil FuelsHere’s an interesting bit of conversation from the Low Carbon Investors conference: a session moderator noted the following about divestiture:  Divestment from all fossil fuels is throwing the baby out with the bath water. Natural gas plays a role in replacing coal.

True. Its presence also enables integrating large amounts of variable resources into the grid-mix.

Another speaker whose company manages the money of a large Protestant church, an organization that is pushing to divest its portfolio of all fossil fuels said, “I’ll do that as soon as you yourself stop using fossil fuels.” That’s a good, clever point IMO.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

A quick note from the Low Carbon Investors conference: a speaker noted, “Investing in water is a contact sport” meaning that you’re going to be dealing with individual people and communities who may not approve of what you’re doing. That certainly is a great metaphor, and it’s completely obvious that the speaker is correct here. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

America's Aging Infrastructure I met a very interesting guy yesterday at the Low Carbon Investors conference: a professor at Stanford whose discipline is disruptive technologies.  Among other things, he’s an advisor to several different groups of students who are working on new approaches to energy and transportation, some of which sound like they have real merit.

Discussions of the future of transportation bring to mind the current sad state of affairs that exist in the U.S.; there is an ongoing debate here with respect to our crumbling infrastructure: our highways, bridges, railroad tracks, airports, etc. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Low Carbon Investors Event Presents a ChallengeI’m up in San Francisco at the Low Carbon Investors conference today. I like to cover events like this for 2GreenEnergy readers, and I aim to do that in this case with all my might. There is a slight problem, however, (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized

Love Reading? Tips on How You Can Read MoreReading has long been established as one of the best ways of improving vocabulary and of lowering levels of stress in your body. The time spent reading removes you completely from the world around you and allows your mind time to become creative. It has even been shown to improve your intellect. Here are some tips on how you can read more, despite a busy lifestyle.

Borrow books (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Kansas Says Goodbye To Its Renewable Energy Portfolio StandardsThe Kansas state legislature has passed a Koch Industries-sponsored bill that does away with the state’s clean energy requirements for electric utilities and replaces them with a voluntary goal.

According to the article, the state’s environmental groups aren’t happy, which is predictable. In fact, if there is any surprise here, it’s that environmental groups exist in Kansas at all.

For those of you outside the U.S. who might not understand this remark, Kansas is arguably the most regressive state in our Union.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

Bladeless Wind TurbineIf we have any heavyweights in fluid dynamics out there who would like to comment on this concept, I would appreciate it.  It’s a bladeless wind turbine, one that captures energy from the moving air by shaking rather than turning.

My take: I’ll be stunned if this actually has the potential to lower the levelized cost of energy (as they claim).  Today’s turbines are over 80% efficient in converting the incident kinetic energy from a certain swept area into electricity.  (This is incorrect; in my haste, I omitted a whole bunch of considerations here; my bad; see comments below. This should have read: …”80% of the theoretical maximum”.)

What would be an effective configuration of these devices to achieve a large swept area?  How are they going to top 80%?  Good luck.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Car Ownership and SustainabilityThere was a popular song here in the U.S. in the 1990s that began: “I believe that children are our future….”  This has always struck me as nonsensical.  The lyricist might have been thinking:  OK, let’s get started with a brave and bold statement….I believe that old people are our future…., no, wait a second; they’re going to be dead soon; let’s make that children, yes that’s much better.

Be this as it may, yes, he was obviously correct: young people are indeed our future.  That’s why it’s so gratifying to see that they lead the charge in a great number of directions that favor sustainability, one of which is a bold reduction in car ownership.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Ocean Acidification and Its Many Terrifying ConsequencesThose of you who understand the basic chemistry of ocean acidification know that the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is absorbed into the seas, momentarily creating carbonic acid, which almost immediately breaks apart into products that includes a hydrogen ion.  The ion then combines with the previously abundant carbonate molecule, the limiting reactant in the formation of calcium carbonate (limestone).  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

2GreenEnergy Thanks All Its Contributors--And Steve Martin for a Highly Relevant QuoteI may have mentioned that we recently passed the 5,000 mark in terms of total posts here.  In fact, this is number 5,126–of which I’ve written 4,483.

When it comes to my stuff, I’m reminded of what (American actor, director, and comedian–pictured) Steve Martin said:  “Fortunately, persistence is a good substitute for talent.”

Thanks to all who have contributed.

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