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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Allocating funds for sustainable progress is fast becoming a mandatory survival parameter for companies worldwide. With the climate change concerns mounting heavily by drastic weather conditions (consider the polar vortex), companies are realizing that they should shift to the green gear while there is still time. With the global fossil fuel supply running out every second in heavy consumption, full investment in alternative energy options is only a matter of time. From automobile manufactures to telecom services, everyone has to go green or perish. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

If you want to read a thoroughly misleading piece of garbage, let me suggest this article on renewable energy and nature, published in the EnergyCollective.  Check this out:

“The renewable energy paradigm requires an unprecedented industrial re-engineering of the landscape: lining every horizon with forty-story wind turbines, paving deserts with concentrating solar mirrors, girdling the coasts with tidal and wave generators, and drilling for geological heat reservoirs; it sees all of nature as an integrated machine for producing energy…… Ultimately, if we want to save more nature we must leave more of it alone, not harness it to power a human population of 7 going on 9 billion.”

Please, no more.  I just had lunch, and that is really nauseating.  At the risk of stating the obvious: (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

A very senior businessman I’ve known for a long while has asked me to serve as a panelist for a conference his group is putting on next September in San Diego.  He writes, “I assume (your expertise) falls into two areas — what are investors looking for, as well as any of the topics related to energy.”

I respond:  Sure, I’ll do it.  Yes, I would say discussions related to clean energy, the environment, and sustainability are all fairly strong for me – at least from a high level.

I don’t claim to have any unique insights as to what investors want. I would simply say what the audience, I’m sure, already knows, i.e., that investors want low risk and high returns in a very short period of time.  Of course, that’s the problem we face here in renewables, which are longer-term and capital intensive by nature, and they compete against forms of energy that are extremely inexpensive, because, in general, we don’t seem to care that they are ruining the planet.  This is one of the reasons we’re having trouble making headway here.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

I really enjoy working with our interns here at 2GreenEnergy, in my capacity as, I suppose we could say “coach.”  My role is to direct them into researching areas that I think will be a good fit for the individual’s interests and abilities, point them in directions that I believe will be fruitful, and then finally, help then edit their writing.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

My colleague Jim Boyden (PhD, physics, Cal Tech, 1960) was kind enough to brief me on the highlights of the meeting of the American Physical Society at the University of California at Berkeley last weekend. The core of the meeting, apparently, was an update on climate change (what can we expect, and when can we expect it), and the status of the major technologies that may come to bear to help us migrate away from fossil fuels while there is still time to avert catastrophe. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

I’ve recently made another addition to my list of renewable energy investment opportunities: the development of a smallish wind farm in Sardinia.  In a recent call I had with a colleague in Europe, I learned something interesting, and quite important for potential investors: in order to encourage distributed generation from small and medium-sized devices, the power coming onto the grid from wind turbines on Sardinia that are rated under 60 KW is rewarded with a huge feed-in tariff (more than 26 Eurocents per KWh over 20 years), where power from anything over that rating receives less than half that amount.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

With its strong economic position in the world and its industrialization, Europe is an important energy consumer. This brings about the need for constant research to ensure that the future of electricity demand for the Continents is based on renewables. Over the last few years, researchers have been looking for ideas to provide electricity to Europe. Between 2003 and 2007 a group of international researchers began to think about Africa and, in particular, the Sahara Desert. Indeed, in the Sahara the amount of power from the sun is so huge that our capturing all the sun’s energy for six hours would be sufficient to provide all the energy that all of humanity needs for a full year. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Here’s a story with a happy ending.  Apparently, the educational arm of the U.S. coal industry, the American Coal Foundation, hired schoolbook publisher “Scholastic” to create classroom lessons on energy.  Not surprisingly, the material on coal discussed its many “advantages,” but didn’t mention a single disadvantage.  No material on carbon, greenhouse gas emissions or climate change, not a word on pollutants like NOx and SOx, as well as the earth’s deadliest toxins: arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium and selenium, and not a syllable on the mountaintop removal mining that has destroyed 500 Appalachian mountains. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Progressives certainly disdain New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, don’t they?  It seems that at the rate of at least once a week he does something to irritate the Common American.  Today we learn that he’s blocking Tesla’s efforts to build a direct sales model in his state, i.e., one that circumvents the traditional dealer model.  That’s not going to go over well with the people who are hoping the U.S. can end its oil addiction. 

I must confess that I don’t understand the basic law here.  Don’t I have a constitutional right to engage in any form of commerce I wish, as long as I’m not selling something illegal, e.g., slaves, drugs, etc.?  If I want to sell oranges or toothpaste via e-commerce and circumvent grocery stores, don’t I have that right? Can cars possibly be any different?

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Efficiency

As manufacturing companies aim to increase production and reduce costs, analysis of energy consumption within the process is vital. With plastic injection molding, three types of machines and processes are used – hydraulic, hybrid, and all-electric. Any plastics manufacturer may be (and should be) concerned with their impact on the environment. Part of the decision-making toward the goal to be green is figuring out which process and machine to use in order to minimize the negative effects and still be profitable. To do so, one must understand how each system operates. (more…)

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