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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Barking Up the Right Tree with Offshore Marine FacilityHere’s a project that touches on renewable energy only obliquely, but I thought readers might enjoy it as it’s staggeringly large.

Craig:  Please (check out the concept for) Float Inc. marine technologies. As the various governments in the US have not seen fit to recognize the vast advantages of our marine technologies, we have managed to make forward strides here in Europe.  I am currently corresponding with Ireland, Scotland, and the UK for possible advancements towards “getting the OFOES in the water” as Proof of Concept.  Funding for this is very difficult to find, at this moment.

Wow, you’re not afraid of thinking big, are you?  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Hydrokinetics

Concept in Ocean Current EnergyA gentleman from South Africa asked for my feedback on a new concept in hydrokinetics aimed at capturing energy from ocean currents.  I hope a few readers will find my response interesting:

Hi, and thanks very much for sharing this fascinating concept.  As you can imagine, I come across many similar ideas in the course of a given year, even when I’m sitting back in my office.  When I want a real deluge, I go to the Ocean Energy show, the most recent one of which was in Atlantic City (whose boardwalk–see photos above and below–features people dressed in unexpected ways).

Having watched your video (which, per your request, I won’t publish), I would say:

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Grading Cleantech Business Plans as “Good” vs. “Best”A reader offers me advice re: my reviewing cleantech business plans with an eye towards identifying “the best.”  He writes:

Given your line of work, you might want to be more politically aware in your statements.  Instead of saying that you referred an investor to “the company that, by my wits, offers what I believe to be the most promising technology in …. (a certain space)”, you may want to say something like you referred that investor to “a company with a very promising technology.” If I made money helping to match investors with farmers who grow oranges, I would not publish a blog that said that I had recently referred an investor to the farm with the BEST oranges.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

Concentrated Solar Power – Will It Have Its Day?Anyone who has written off CSP as a technology whose level cost of energy is doomed to remain hopelessly cost-ineffective needs to know that the Saudis are installing this stuff at a record-setting pace.

Why wouldn’t a country sitting on the world’s biggest oil reserve simply keep drilling?  It’s because the more renewable energy they consume at a reasonable cost, the more oil they can sell at a profit.

The Saudis find CSP to be cost-effective, or they wouldn’t be doing it.  And needless to say, they’re not prone to make silly mistakes in financial mathematics.  (Shown above:  Prince Alwaleed bin Talal seated on his wide-body jet, shortly after announcing that he was suing Forbes Magazine for underestimating ($20 billion) his $29 billion net worth.) 

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Hydrokinetics

Hydrokinetics Can't Avoid Biofouling IssuesRegarding a recent post on the validity of ocean wave energy, my friend, top-level author Tom Blakeslee (pictured here; see ClearLight Press) writes:  Look at the underside of boats and docks…filled with barnacles and growth. Maintenance could be a nightmare. Any proposal should be carefully evaluated from this point of view.

No question about that. Anytime you insert anything into a river or an ocean you have issues with both environmental interference and, to your point, survivability—in this case, biofouling. As anyone can imagine, salt water (vs. fresh water) only amplifies all this. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Our Sensibilities Are Changing at Incredible SpeedFor those who think that human attitudes and glaciers move at the same pace, check out this gag set of Christmas cards from Ayn Rand.  Yes, you’ll chuckle, but remember that it was only 50 years ago that many intellectuals thought she was the leading thinker of the day, and that the phrase “objectivist epistemology” had some sort of meaning in the English language.  Five decades later we’re scratching our heads, wondering how it’s possible that anyone with the sense of a hamster ever had that notion.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Is Humankind "Wired" to Survive the Onslaught of Environmental Catastrophe?Do you tend to wonder if our civilization is becoming more “civilized?”  I do.

We’d all like to believe that humankind is making progress, meaning, among other things, that an increasing percentage of our species is accorded what we would generally consider to be “basic human rights.”  It’s easy to believe this is true, based on a few major aspects of our history.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Ocean Thermal

Financing of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) ProjectsA reader offers this comment on my belief that ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) can represent a cost-effective way to deliver clean energy to the equatorial regions of the world.  He writes:  (OTEC) will require an investor with deep pockets as the initial investment is quite large.

Interestingly enough, that’s not true. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

The Disappearance of Low-Speed Electric VehiclesIn response to my piece on the lack-luster adoption curve for electric vehicles, a commenter who’s been with us for over five years writes:  Not all of us, perhaps, but if someone could build something that was electric instead of gas, with a top speed of 50mph and a range of 50 miles (for example), I could drive it to work, charge it with solar panels during the day, and drive home.  A tiny basic vehicle – enough lights and brakes to make it safe, big enough to hold two uncomfortably – just “transportation.”

There are (at least “were”) dozens of attempts at LSEVs (low-speed electric vehicles) and MSEVs.  They failed (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Eestor Re-Announces Capacitor Breakthrough:  ZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzA colleague writes:  It looks like Eestor is finally coming out. They activated their website after all these years.  They got some validation by outside testing. Let me know what you think.

I hate to sound cynical, but (more…)

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