U.S. Politics: Low-brow? Disgusting? Shameful?
If you believe that every iota of U.S. politics is shameful, you are certainly not alone. But I challenge you to listen to this six-minute speech and not come to a different conclusion.
Tagged with: U.S. politics
Interesting Renewable Energy Questions on Quora
Here’s one on “Alternate Histories (Hypothetical Historical Scenarios)” What would the world look like today if fossil fuels never existed? Without access to abundant cheap energy from fossil fuels could a society have developed using different technologies that would allow them to support a population and level of affluence similar to that in the west?
Ryan Carlyle, BSChE, Subsea hydraulics engineer, whom I greatly admire, answers: (more…)
How Many Dimensions Are Important in Solar PV?
I volunteer to answer questions on renewable energy on Quora.com. From today’s feed:
Question: What is the most hyperactive solar power product (per cubic volume) that is coming in 2016? Volume because transparent solar panels have been invented already. So “transparent cubes with layers and layers of solar panels inside” would be a good product. (more…)
Proponents of Nuclear Science Shouldn’t Object to Objectivity
There are many interesting but sad elements to my involvement with the pro-nuclear online community of which I’m a part. For example, last night one guy asked the 95-member group in an effort to discredit the arguments of anti-nuke renewable energy proponent Joe Romm, “What are the most egregious errors he’s making?” (more…)
Solving Our Environment Problems Comes at a Cost: Brotherhood
I hope you’ll check out the video link here, showing how truly awe-inspiring certain aspects of the Chinese people and its culture are. As another example, China is the world’s leader in investments in renewable energy. Unfortunately, it’s also the world’s leading polluter, and continues to build coal-fired power plants at an alarming rate. (more…)
The Work of Simone de Beauvoir Raises Some Interesting Questions
From today’s Writer’s Almanac:
It’s the birthday of the novelist and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, (pictured here with her boyfriend Jean-Paul Sartre) born in Paris, France (1908)….. (more…)
CSP and an Advancement in Thermal Heat Storage
Many of us occupy ourselves, in otherwise inactive moments, by contemplating what the future of energy may be like. We need to keep in mind that, since the earth receives more than 6,000 times more power from the sun than all of us humans are consuming, we are presented with the challenge of harvesting only a tiny fraction of the incident solar energy. (more…)
Encouraging Uptick in Electric Transportation
Over the years, 2GreenEnergy has played host to an uncountable number of discussions about the projected adoption curve for electric vehicles. In particular, many of us have wrung our hands over how slow this process has been, while harboring the fear that the future may be just as uninteresting as the past. (more…)
Think Twice Before Taking a Position Against The Dalai Lama
I like to think of myself as a man of righteous conviction. “Damned be he who disagrees with this,” I sometimes think to myself as I pound my chest between keystrokes.
Having said that, it really does feel good when my observations on our civilization’s approach to energy align with those of the ultimate man of peace and wisdom, The Dalai Lama. Here he comes out as a proponent of advanced nuclear, i.e., safe, clean, reasonably-priced nuclear energy that has no capacity to act as the basis of thermonuclear weapons.
His reasoning: all of us on Earth, rich or poor, have a right to a decent future, and none of us wants to despoil the planet’s future. He speaks the usual sooth.
Renewables Threaten Big Oil—And the Gloves Come Off
When I first became seriously interested in renewable energy about a decade ago, several people told me: “Renewables aren’t on Big Oil’s radar screen right now, since clean energy’s penetration into the overall energy mix is next to nothing. But watch what happens when solar and wind become a real threat. The fossil fuel people will go ballistic; they’ll fight tooth and nail to put a spear through their new-found competition.” (more…)
