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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Hydrokinetics

I just reviewed another in a long series of attempts at ocean wave energy.  This one is similar to a Pelamis, but, because it requires less material it will be less expensive, thus offering a lower levelized cost of energy (LCOE). 

I wrote back: It’s hard for me to evaluate these claims re: LCOE.  I’m reminded of something a wise-cracking engineer at Black and Veatch told me a few years ago when I showed him one of my client’s ideas and told him how inexpensive it would be to build.  “We have a saying around here, Shields,” he retorted.  “It’s always cheap until you build it.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Here’s an article that discusses the economics by which utility customers  — both consumers and businesses – are leaving the grid in favor of solar and battery storage.  This isn’t something that will occur in the distant future; the trend is already underway, and it’s accelerating as the prices of solar PV and batteries fall, and the efficiency of our buildings improves.

The problem, of course, is that this leaves fewer (and less affluent) people as the utilities’ remaining customers.

Perhaps it’s time to take an obvious but much resisted step: rethink the relationship we have with our utilities from the ground up.  We’ll always need them around, just not in the way we wanted them when we laid the rules down 100 years ago.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

Each one of us uses energy in some way or other all day long, throughout our entire lives. We depend on energy for almost everything to make our life more comfortable, and enjoyable. Unfortunately what we don’t realize is that we are wasting energy unnecessarily. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

There’s a green revolution going on. More and more people are making their homes energy efficient. Some of them are doing this to protect the environment, while others are doing it to save money. Either way, the environment is benefiting from this. You too should join this green revolution and transform your home. It’ll benefit you and the environment simultaneously. Here are 6 tips to make your house energy efficient and save money at the same time.

Replace Your Appliances (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Here’s another short essay from one of our interns, Nikita Rao.  Thanks, Nikita.  -ed

The need for renewable resources is increasing tremendously in several regions of the world, due to its limitless availability. Solar power is one among the many resources that has gained a stable place in the market; it is expanding massively.

The increase in solar power is due to many reasons, one of which being the incentives provided to solar power generators by the utilities. (more…)

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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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