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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Here’s an article that summarizes a recent presentation on energy trends conducted by Pulitzer prize-winning author and energy analyst Daniel Yergin.  About a year ago, I saw Yergin present at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and I appreciate his breadth of knowledge on the subject.  But then, as again here, he barely touches on the many environmental issues, and he doesn’t mention climate change at all.  That’s an enormous elephant in the room. 

Of course, let’s keep in mind that he’s a consultant to the industry, and his clients are primarily the big oil companies.  How much can we suspect they really want to hear about global warming, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity, and the rest?  I’m sure the consultants to the tobacco companies keep the discussion of lung cancer to an absolute minimum.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Hydrokinetics

photo 319px-Die_romantische_Ardeche_zps92555676.jpgAbout a month ago, I mentioned that I had run across a very interesting group of folks in Brazil.  The team, captained by an extremely senior financial/energy professional, has assembled a package of 13 “small” (1 – 30 MW) and “micro” (less than 1 MW) run-of-river hydrokinetics projects in Southeastern Brazil, and is well-positioned to move quickly.  They’re looking for investors, and are prepared to make an attractive offer. 

There are many things I like about this–one of which is the overall context of clean energy in Brazil.  Here’s an article in DiscoverBrazil! that presents the country’s overall appetite for renewable energy generally, based on the increasing demand for power and its repulsion for fossil fuels.   Here’s another one in the Latin American Energy Review, echoing this point.  Brazil’s real estate market is the single hottest one in the Americas, and the third hottest (behind only Hong Kong and Dubai) in the world.  The country’s energy growth is running at 5% annually, outpacing its growth in GDP.  Best of all, public policy makes the development of renewables much more straightforward than it is here in the U.S.

Again, if you happen to be an accredited investor, and you’d like to learn more about the project, just click here.  Please contact me if you’d like to get in touch with the principals, and I’ll make that happen.

Note: Sorry about the error you may have received: mW (milliwatts) vs. MW (megawatts).

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

One thinks of Apple CEO Tim Cook as being an extremely calm person, but he drew a hard line against a conservative faction of shareholders who complained that the company should focus entirely on its bottom line, and knock off its demand for renewable energy and its participation in other sustainability initiatives aimed at stemming climate change and reducing other forms of environmental damage. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

At last year’s 35th reunion of my college class, I accepted the job of the co-class secretary, meaning that I took on the responsibility of encouraging my classmates to submit entries for publication in the school newspaper.  Insofar as I was asked to serve in this position, I feel obligated to send my own stuff along as well, and I thought readers may be interested in some of these submissions.

• As your co-class secretary, I have the lugubrious duty to report that copies of my third book on clean energy, “Renewable Energy – Following the Money,” aren’t exactly flying off bookstores’ shelves.  Maybe it’s because I insist on using words that have essentially disappeared from our language, like “lugubrious.”  In any case, I enjoyed the project immensely, and I certainly learned a lot.  Also, who knows?  Oprah could call any minute and turn this whole thing around for me. 

• I published my third book (“Renewable Energy – Following the Money”) last September.  The royalties are coming in so fast and hard that I should be able to help with the tuition for my grandchildren’s college education – just as long as they’re willing to wait until they’re 60 or 65 years old before they apply. 

• My second book on clean energy (“Is Renewable Really Doable?”) was published earlier this year.  That and a quarter will buy me a cup of coffee, as they say, but the whole process is richly rewarding.  In fact, I encourage all of you to write a book or two if you haven’t already done so; it’s good for the soul.  I also invite those interested in sustainability to check out 2GreenEnergy.com; I try to keep readers up to date on the technological, the economic, and the political aspects of one of mankind’s thorniest challenges. 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Those of us concerned about the declining bee population via colony collapse disorder (CCD) are worried primarily about agriculture; a large percentage of the food we eat here in the U.S. is pollinated by bees.  A new discovery, published just last week, suggests that the cause is a “witches’ brew” of pesticides and fungicides on which agribusiness has increasingly relied to maintain crop yields, given the depletion of natural resources in the soil through misuse/overuse.    

This, in my opinion, is a good reason to bring forward technologies like aeroponics, which appears on my list of clean business investment opportunities.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Waste is a reality of any business. While minimizing waste can definitely help in increasing profitability, you never have the option to eliminate it from the business. The fact is, you have to deal with waste and so many have to look for a solution which can help you get rid of instant waste quickly. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Biomass

Question:  Approximately how much manure is produced by the dairy cows and hogs in the U.S. every day? 

Answer: Can be found at Clean Energy Answers.

Relevance:  Improper management of lagoons and dry waste run-off, as well as lagoon overflow from rainfall events, contribute to regional water contamination. Agricultural run-off has been linked to dangerous pathogenic (disease causing) microorganisms such as (more…)

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The good news is that the U.S. wishes to play a major role in bringing electrical power to 50 million people in sub-Saharan Africa.  Apparently the reason is international relations on a grand scale; if we don’t do it, China will, and we don’t want to further empower the Chinese.   (Obviously, a better reason would be improving the quality of life for the poorest of the poor, reducing deforestation, and, via educating women, reducing the fertility rate and population growth.) 

Be this as it may, here’s the bad news:  the energy resources at stake here are not necessarily renewable.  If we wind up with another continent full of coal-fired power plants, the result in terms of the environment will be disastrous.

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Efficiency

All savvy entrepreneurs know that when it comes to costs and expenses, it’s wise to keep a close eye on your outgoings. When you’re running a busy office, it’s easy to run up unnecessarily high energy bills, which can have a huge impact on your bottom line. Of course, doing your bit for the environment is also a concern, and as consumers are becoming more aware of their impact on the world around them, many are choosing to do business with those who take their responsibilities seriously. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

It’s the birthday of John Steinbeck, whose gut-wrenching mid-20th Century novels shot through the American consciousness like  jagged bolts of lightning.   Joining with folk singers of the day, e.g., Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, Steinbeck awakened millions of Americans to a basic human fact that had somehow been forgotten (perhaps via the heady days of the 1920s): we have a basic responsibility to care for one another, and we’re actually at our best when we display that compassion.

I can’t expect he’d be too happy with where we’ve gone today in terms of income inequality, the fight to cut social security and food stamps, etc.

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