One of the biggest arguments anti-electric vehicle protesters make is the fact that many batteries only allow you to travel 300 miles on a single charge. For many, 300 miles may not seem like a very long distance. However, it may be much longer than you may think. The entire aspect of the distance is nothing more than a desperate attempt to argue against electric vehicles for no other reason than to argue. (more…)
When I received this from my colleague Fritz Maffrey, it occurred to me that others might be interested in it too.
Well a milestone has been reached, Nissan has now globally sold over 100k units of the Nissan Leaf (pictured). That is a profound proof statement; as I write this I note that outside a Nissan Leaf is charging. (more…)
It never ceases to amaze me how 2Greenenergy’s relatively tiny Internet presence has reconnected me with old friends I haven’t seen in 40 years. Bruce Wilson, whom I met in the sandbox in kindergarten in 1960, reconnected with me fairly recently, based on something I wrote that referred to our old school (William Penn Charter). Fast-forward to 2014: Bruce has 37 years’ experience in renovation, restoration, energy efficient construction and retrofitting, and he specializes in high performance green building and building performance upgrades, as well as deep energy retrofits and lighting improvements. (more…)
Here’s an interesting piece a friend sent me on gaining people’s trust, a key ingredient in which is letting people express themselves, and accepting what they say about themselves and their ideas without judgment.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t work too well in some of the situations I face here at 2GreenEnergy, where half a dozen or so people per week send me some sort of clean energy concept to review, most of which don’t hold water. I suppose I could be non-committal in cases like these, or even encouraging, but I can’t bring myself to do that, even at the expense of driving a few angry “unsubscribes” to the website.
A few minutes ago, I came across a reference to “second-degree murder,” which led me to the Wikipedia article on the subject for a quick refresher on the difference between that and involuntary manslaughter. While I thought this would have been completely straightforward, it really wasn’t at all. As I read along, I was reminded how strange it is that the 50 U.S. states have 50 different ways of defining and punishing crimes. Isn’t a barroom fight that ends in a death pretty much as repugnant in Rhode Island as it is in Oregon? (more…)
I’ve mentioned several times over the past few years that, though I don’t normally bet against my own longevity, I sincerely doubt that I’ll still be on this planet when Chevron pays a nickel of the $9.8 billion judgment against it, even though the order was upheld in an appellate court, as restitution for the vicious crimes it committed against the people of Ecuador.
Chevron’s current tack? Blame the victims? (more…)
Here’s a good article, selected from the ton of them I see, on how to analyze the value of Tesla Motors. The author argues, as many others have before, that those who ridicule Tesla’s astronomical market cap are missing the point that Tesla is more than just a “car company.” (more…)
West Virginia’s secretary of Health and Human Resources, Karen Bowling, said, “It’s hard to instill confidence when there’s little known about the chemical, but at the same time we have to trust in the science of what’s happening.” …in other words, we need to trust the science we don’t have.
I researched this stuff a bit, and the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) on this chemical – 4-Methylcyclohexanemethanol – states that it has been banned from everything but R&D purposes across Canada, Japan, South Korea and the European Union. (more…)
Understanding the electric bike phenomenon is like anything else: the more I learn, the more I see how ignorant I am.
At first blush, how appealing is a foldable e-bike? Can’t you just use a bike rack, like everyone else? But check out the video linked above, and then think about people with boats, or even planes, who come into an area and want to get around. Think about throwing a couple of them in the trunk of your car, for a fun day tooling around some remote spot.
They’re not for everyone, but there really are some neat applications for people who are rethinking how they get themselves around.
I just had a wonderful talk with Tina Vasile, CEO of Swing Green, purveyor of heat exchangers of various types. The company’s expanding, and that’s good, but Tina and I agree that it’s sometimes hard to get people excited about a set of technologies that are so “unsexy.” People tend to want some big, conspicuous thing on their roof generating clean electricity and making their electric meter run backwards, not a coil of pipe underneath the floor of their bathroom, cost-effectively but invisibly recapturing some of the heat from their shower water.
I’m not sure exactly what to do about that, except to persevere. Tina and her team are talking to engineers, architects, government purchasing agencies – all the right people; if they stick with it, I know they’ll succeed.
