Even since the advent of large-scale commercial wind energy in the 1990s, there has been a certain interest in airborne wind, as illustrated here. In principle, it offers all the benefits of offshore wind, on steroids. It’s less visible than onshore wind, which some people find offensive to the eye. More importantly, it’s situated in places of more stable and higher velocity wind currents. (more…)
As we learned in the early 20th Century, depending on the circumstance, light can behave either as a particle or a wave. Want to see the wave nature of light? Set up a double slit experiment (see photo on left) and notice that particles would not produce these interference patterns. Want to see light behave as a particle? Consider solar PV, and notice that particles of a certain energy can dislodge electrons in the semiconductor substrate materials. (more…)
Here’s a conversation on Facebook that presents my viewpoint.
Liz McCleney He (Spicer) misspoke (about Hitler’s not using chemical weapons), he apologized; move on. (more…)
Here’s eminent climate scientist James Hansen’s recent Ted Talk on global warming. I’m not sure there’s anything new here in terms of the data themselves: the imbalance of the Earth’s heat energy is 0.6 Watts/square meter, 20 times the rate of energy consumption by all 7.4 billion of us, the equivalent of 400,000 Hiroshima atom bombs exploding every day, 365 days per year. (more…)
Here’s an article on how the IoT applies to smart buildings, in this case, greenhouses for cannabis–yet another sign that “the times they are a’changing.”
Cannabis clearly has medical value, both in pain relief generally and in the treatment of certain conditions, e.g. glaucoma and a range of emotional disorders. (more…)
The data is in and it’s definitely not good. Our planet is running out of fresh water at an alarming rate, because our reserves are being depleted before they’ve had time to replenish themselves.
This information is coming directly from NASA satellites that have discovered nearly two-thirds of our largest underground aquifers are in trouble. (more…)
If you’re looking for more evidence that public opinion and law-making have identically zero to do with one other, here’s a case in point: Bernie Sanders is the most popular senator in the U.S. Congress, and Mitch McConnell is the least. But check out Mitch’s voting record, and you’ll see that he’s gotten pretty much everything he’s asked for recently.
Of many examples we could name, take the approval of climate denier and avowed EPA opponent Scott Pruitt to run the EPA. What percentage of Americans want environmental restrictions removed and the EPA effectively dismantled? Damn few.
The industrial sector is the subset of the U.S. economy that requires the most energy. U.S. industry uses 30 Quadrillion Btu of energy each year — about a third of all the energy used across the country.
That number’s not surprising since industry produces everything we use in our daily lives. It includes manufacturing, agriculture, construction, mining and water and wastewater treatment. Manufacturing uses the most energy of any industry subdivision — about 85% of industrial energy use. (more…)
A friend asks, “If you’re looking to add cleantech stock to your portfolio, is there anything to buy beyond Tesla Inc. (TESLA)? Are there any other decent cleantech investment opportunities?”
I would simply refer you to 2GreenEnergy colleague Dr. Tom Konrad (pictured with characteristic quizzical smile), who runs AltEnergyStocks.com, a curated set of recommended equities in this space. Here’s a list of all the stocks Tom follows at some level. His particular recommendations are available by scrolling down on his blog.
If you want to hear that this is the most frightening time in U.S. history, you can simply Google it, and read any of the 5.6 million articles posted on the subject. But if you want to hear it from arguably the world’s most intelligent person, Stephen Hawking, click here. (more…)
