Blog – Page 1292 – 2GreenEnergy.com

Unavoidable Trend in Renewable Energy: Consolidation

craigshieldsPosted on December 22, 2014 Posted in Renewables - Business

My colleague who sent me this piece on ocean wave energy jokingly disapproved of my unenthusiastic response: “Always the cynic! Merry Christmas!” I write back:

Ha! Well, I believe in consolidation, since I’ve seen it happen so many times. In 2008/09, I used to go to all the electric vehicle shows when they were geographically convenient. There were hundreds of booths, mostly occupied by vendors who were hopeful to be successful in this budding industry—maybe a dozen of would-be OEMs, and scads of purveyors of charging infrastructure and other accoutrements. Now, there are so few potential players in the EV community, most of those shows no longer even exist. (more…)

Tagged with: electric vehicle shows, equatorial nations with OTEC, EV charging infrastructure, Iceland with its geothermal, island nations extreme latitudes with their tidal, variety of renewable energy solutions

Harvesting Wave Energy in Peru

craigshieldsPosted on December 22, 2014 Posted in Hydrokinetics

Those following the progress the world is making in wave energy may be interested in the website of these folks in Peru: Atmocean. I have to say that I love the name. It contains the word “ocean” and it’s pronounced “at motion?” That’s seriously clever stuff. (more…)

Tagged with: Atmocean, Harvesting Wave Energy, skeptic wave energy

Want the Truth in Energy? We Need to Think for Ourselves

craigshieldsPosted on December 22, 2014 Posted in Renewables - Politics

A few years ago I wrote this post expressing my displeasure at my countrymen, as they had adopted wholesale the explanation that our government provided for invading Iraq.

Immediately before the attack, this message, without a comma’s worth of variation, was broadcast on every major channel, not only in the U.S., but all around the world: “The G8 has today endorsed an American plan to bring democracy to the Middle East.” It was short, understandable, and credible to the vast majority of people onto whose ears it fell—if only because of its ubiquity: the rice farmers in Indonesia got it on their radios every 30 minutes for 24 consecutive hours, just as did the corn farmers in Iowa when they tuned in their morning, evening, and nightly news programs–across every network. The tactics for promoting a constant, unified message were solidly in place then (as they remain today) though, as we all learned just a few years later, there wasn’t a particle of truth in it.

This is a good time to bring this up, as we normalize U.S. – Cuban relations; this is another watershed event in mass communications that itself has great import. (more…)

Tagged with: Americans Think for Themselves, de facto energy policy, extract the last molecule of fossil fuels out of the ground and burn it, normalize U.S. - Cuban relations, Truth in Energy, U.S. energy policy

Renewable Energy Guest Blogging

craigshieldsPosted on December 22, 2014 Posted in Photovoltaics

Ever wonder about the scientific validity of the claims made by guest bloggers? To be honest, I normally don’t, but here’s an exception that I thought I’d share, this one concerning the recent post on iron pyrite and solar PV.

Rep of Blogger: Thank you so much for placing the article live. It looks great! Can I ask you a small favor? I hope you are okay with it. Is it possible to move this disclaimer: “From a Guest Blogger” at the end of the article?

Craig: The problem is that if I do that, my readers will think I wrote it personally. I can’t deal with that. No offense. (more…)

Tagged with: iron pyrite, Renewable Energy Guest Blogging, scientific validity of claims, solar PV materials

Should We Censor Communication—Whether in Movie-Making or Renewable Energy?

craigshieldsPosted on December 21, 2014 Posted in Nuclear

For the first time in the history of Hollywood, filmdom is caught in a no-win situation: if Sony Pictures airs its movie exposing the insane brutality of the Kim Jong Un regime, it’s a near certainty that North Korea is more than crazy enough to kill innocent Americans—probably an enormous number of them. I chose the picture for this post specifically for those who may be wondering if the regime is, in fact, sufficiently deranged; it features a few of the 80 Koreans who were executed by firing squad one recent afternoon for watching foreign films. Thus Sony’s conundrum: releasing the film results in death; not releasing it endorses and encourages censorship—imposed first from the criminally insane—but what next?

Speaking of censorship, but on a completely different scale, for the first time in the history of 2GreenEnergy I told someone just last night that I wanted to sever dialog. (more…)

Tagged with: Censoring Communication in Renewable Energy, nuclear is the only valid energy source, renewable energy land use, validity of both nuclear and wind, wind hoax

Predicting Energy Consumption in the 21st Century

craigshieldsPosted on December 21, 2014 Posted in Efficiency

My colleague Gary Tulie sent me this, explaining how energy use in the UK is falling, despite an improving economy.

I feel sorry for people whose job is predicting the energy markets of the future—and for precisely this reason. (more…)

Tagged with: average power consumption per capita, dreams of a consumer lifestyle, energy use in the UK is falling, new energy efficiency solutions, Predicting Energy Consumption in the 21st Century, predicting the energy markets of the future, sensibilities re: the environment, voracious energy appetite

The Endless Variety of Hydrokinetic Devices

craigshieldsPosted on December 20, 2014 Posted in Hydrokinetics

For the reader who, for whatever reason, may be on a quest to check out every conceivable variation on the theme of extracting the kinetic energy out of moving water, here is Atlantis. Note that a great deal of discussion refers to R&D in 2002 and 2006. Not to sound cynical, but I think there is a reason for that, and it doesn’t bode well for their investors and other fans of this type of technology. (more…)

Tagged with: Atlantis Hydrokinetics, cost of transmitting the energy to shore, endless challenges environmental consequences and survivability, extracting the kinetic energy out of moving water, incredible drop in costs of solar and wind, Variety of Hydrokinetic Devices

From Guest Blogger Romeo: Ways to Go Green in Your Kitchen – Save Money and the Environment

craigshieldsPosted on December 20, 2014 Posted in Efficiency

In a study released by the US Environment Protection Agency, an average household within the United States spends at least $2,000 annually on energy and utility bills. In addition, the continued population growth contributed to a huge increase in water consumption, air pollution, and waste. The agency, along with numerous other organizations, encourages homes to adapt to a greener and more environment friendly lifestyles.

Shifting to a green kitchen is easy. Along with helping the environment, you will also be able save thousands of dollars when you choose to go green. (more…)

Tagged with: eco-friendly, environment, go green, green energy, save energy, save money

Re-invigorating U.S. Cleantech Innovation

craigshieldsPosted on December 19, 2014 Posted in Renewables - Business

I’m guessing the name Walter Feuchs is not a new one to many readers; he’s been in and around cleantech innovation for a very long time. Here he writes: (This document) provides an overview of innovations with a global perspective. Any questions?

Walter: I don’t disagree with a single word you’ve written in your “Green Climate Fund” piece, and the prose is, as always, very clear and compelling. (more…)

Tagged with: cleantech innovation, Green Climate Fund, innovations global perspective, sustainable ag products, Walter Feuchs

Discussion on “Free Energy”

craigshieldsPosted on December 19, 2014 Posted in Renewables - Science

A reader asks for my comments as follows:

I am not a technician but a Free Energy lover – (I’ve spent) more than 30 years trying to understand Nikola Tesla patents as the first approach to free energy. (Now I’m studying):

• “Thermoelectric generator combination — solar ovens concentrate between 800 to 1000°C of heat, converted into electricity by means of Peltier modules

• KapaGen .. closest to Tesla’s free energy… inventor got too much pressure from the “police” and therefore does not answer me anymore (more…)

Tagged with: Cold Fusion Energy, free energy, Nikola Tesla, Searl Effect Generator, Thermoelectric generator combination