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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

The Rapid Migration to Renewable Energy Will Embarrass Lots of People – But They Won’t Be the First to Face Similar HumiliationHere’s an amusing list of 25 actual predictions that were absolutely wrong. I hope you’ll take a few minutes and enjoy them.

My current book project is essentially a take-off on this subject. We’re told, largely by the vested interests desperately trying to maintain the status quo in the energy industry, that renewable energy is a fad, and that powering our Earth from the sun is a pipe-dream. The book will illustrate the folly of this concept, and explain why we’re experiencing the extremely rapid migration to clean energy, based purely on market economics.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Public Relations in the Energy Business Normally Means Someone’s LyingWhen it comes to PR in the energy business, I must confess that I have a suspicious mind. For example, when I see a billboard like this one pictured here, I somehow believe that it must be some sort of logically spurious (not to mention tasteless, profoundly offensive, etc.) attempt on the part of the fossil fuel industry to convince us that their products have no harmful environmental consequences. And bulls-eye! It’s the work of the Heartland Institute, whose funding sources include Koch Industries. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Video on Grid Operation Here’s a short video–a sort of primer on grid operation called “How the lights stay on.” And another more advanced one on the economics and logistics of grid operation.  Their creator quips, “I made them simple enough that a congressman can understand them.”  Ha!

Actually, they have a great deal to offer; I hope you’ll check them out.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Union of Concerned Scientists Offer Online Quiz on Environmental Science -- Great Fun Here’s something I think readers will enjoy; I know I did. It’s a five-question online quiz called “Got Science?” created by The Union of Concerned Scientists, in which you’ll be asked to choose between real science and the bullcrap being peddled as such. Good stuff.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Environmentalism Is a Newcomer to Human Civilization It’s the birthday of Louis Leakey, a founding figure in modern anthropology. Per the Writer’s Almanac:

In 1948, Leakey and his wife found one of the earliest fossil ape skulls ever discovered; it was between 25 and 40 million years old. It is now believed to be the skull of the ancestor of all large primates, including humans. Then, in 1959, they turned up another hominid skull, which was 1.75 million years old. It was the oldest skull of a close human relative ever found at that point, and it helped persuade other anthropologists that Africa was indeed the place where human beings had evolved. (more…)

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Quick Comments of Solar Energy and Algal BiofuelsA reader asked for my comments on this piece on Jinko Solar and this one on algae.  Here’s my position on this:

1) Jinko is extremely well-positioned to expand further its already-existing mega-presence in solar.  I ran into them at Intersolar a couple of weeks ago (they were pretty hard to miss), and I’m extremely impressed with what they’re doing.

2) By contrast, I’m not betting on algae.

(more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

As I’ve mentioned in dozens of posts over the years, one of the issues at the core of most of our woes here in the U.S. are screwy interpretations of the First Amendment to our Constitution. Most famously, we have the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision “Citizens United,” which, under the guise of protecting free speech, grants corporations the right to spend as much money as they want to manipulate our elections in whatever direction suits their purpose.

In the energy sector, obviously, it means that the fossil fuel boys can (and do) spend as much as they want to confuse and misinform voters about renewable energy.  Having said that, the self-same problem is replicated in big food, big pharma–pretty much anything with a “big” in front of it.   That’s how they get bigger every day.

Now, along comes a cartoonist who illustrates all this insanity in a brilliant and hilarious fashion.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Sustainability is a learning that begins at home. Sustainability means more than just using eco-friendly fabrics, furnishing and carpets at your home. It means you are saving the nature and all of its blessings for the future generations. And this is a valuable lesson you need to impart to your children as well. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

Koch Brothers Hard At Work To Kill Wind EnergyI thought I’d get a quick start on my new book and knock out a few interviews by phone. To that end, I had a call scheduled with a colleague in Kansas, a senior player in the wind energy industry.

Well, this was anything but a quick start; I had technical problems with my recording/transcription system, and my colleague got busy and missed the call (fortunately for me). His email contained some poignantly interesting stuff, though, which I thought I’d publish here: (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Ocean Thermal

OTEC, Powering Civilization from Our Sun, and Questions on Human ConsciousnessFor me, part of the joy of business travel that involves long car rides is the opportunity to listen to amazing radio broadcasts that I otherwise would have missed. Last week found me renting a car in Lancaster, PA (home of my client OTECorporation), and driving it south to Leesburg, VA, where I stayed with one of my best friends from college and his charming wife the evening before a meeting in nearby Washington DC.  En route, I was lucky enough to catch a program that examined the question: Who are we, fundamentally? Incorporeal souls? Ongoing chains of chemical reactions that somehow enable us to form a coherent story about ourselves? (more…)

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