Home › Blog › Page 1368

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Apparently, Ford is offering its customers an opportunity to improve the range they experience with their new line of electric vehicles, by installing solar PV on the roof.  This is certainly not a unique concept; I recall a company about five years ago that was converting Toyota Priuses to EVs, and took this approach with PV.  

On a sunny day and under optimum driving conditions, I’m guessing drivers may get two or three extra kilowatt-hours, sufficient to drive another 10 – 15 miles.  Not too bad.  

Tagged with: , , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Hydrokinetics

Looking at my clean energy events schedule for 2014, I’ve decided to attend the Energy Ocean show in June, to be held in Atlantic City, NJ.  This should be a nice complement to a number of visits to clients, prospects, and industry pundits on the East Coast, as well as a walk down Memory Lane, as the South Jersey shore was home to hundreds of pleasant boyhood experiences.

The oceans hold several different types of energy that, in turn, holds the interest of scientists everywhere: (more…)

Tagged with: , , , , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Smart Grid

Here’s another article on the megatrend by which our utilities are being transformed, due to the pressures of distributed generation (DG), integrating renewables, demand response/peak shaving, etc.  The net: some bright college kids predict that, by 2020, the utilities will have re-invented themselves as “energy concierges,” i.e., helping their customers make the right choices. (more…)

Tagged with: , , , , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Not surprisingly, Google and Apple have all kinds of ideas regarding how smart phone technology will interact with the cars of the future; together they have literally hundreds of patents in this space.

Not to sound cavalier, but the only concepts in automotive engineering that really mean anything are those related to breaking the relationship with fossil fuels. (more…)

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The Internet is full of reasons why we need to focus more on sustainable energy. Everyone has facts to display about rising sea levels, the waste of resources when fracking, and how we have alternatives to continue our survival as a species. With all of our technological wonder and innovative developments, why are we still dependent on 100-year old technologies in order to survive? Why are there still people starving in the world? Because it’s not profitable to have it any other way. (more…)

Tagged with: , , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Here’s a good article with a terrific infographic on an important subject: the relationship between energy and potable water.  The topic is often called the “water-energy nexus,” though this term is regarded as a terrible cliché by the people whose life’s work focuses upon it.  But like it or not, a warming planet with a growing population makes stable and abundant water supplies increasingly rare; as you’ll see here, 37 countries already face “extremely high” levels of water stress.

So much for the bad news; the good news is this: as we entered 2014 this morning, a large and ever-growing percentage of people were wrapping their wits around this whole subject for the first time.  More people each day are realizing that our status quo approach to things we used to take for granted – like energy and water – are literally unsustainable in the 21st Century.  What’s more, these same people are declaring this year as “time for a change.”  Welcome on board!

Tagged with: , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

A reader asked my opinion of Coal Water Slurry Fuel (CWSF) as an alternative to conventional coal power generation and the greatly reduced or limited emissions.

I responded that I actually don’t know much about it.  From a quick read just now, it sounds like a great improvement over the dirtiest forms of coal. The claim is that the presence of water in CWSF reduces harmful emissions into the atmosphere.

I suppose this could facilitate the trapping of heavy metals and certain other noxious byproducts.  But it isn’t possible that CWSF results in less CO2 emitted; the power output is the result of burning a hydrocarbon, and the carbon has to go somewhere; it doesn’t just disappear.  Obviously, the world will be a better place when we knock off the burning of fossil fuels to produce our energy.

If anyone knows more about this, I’d be delighted to hear it. 

 

Tagged with: , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Here’s a good article that discusses a few different vicious cycles in which the investor-owned utilities (IOUs) find themselves.  As more people install solar (or whatever) on their properties, the infrastructure by which power is generated, transmitted, and distributed must be amortized over a smaller base, driving up prices, thus providing incentive for even more people to go to distributed generation. (more…)

Tagged with: , , , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I’m sorry I forgot to mention the birthday of Pablo Casals the other day, unarguably the most revered cellist in the first half of the 20th Century.  He’s noteworthy here because of his opposition to fascism, and the fact that he was an active campaigner for peace all his life.

Casals said: “Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.” (more…)

Tagged with: , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

Here’s a website whose tagline is that solar energy applied to agriculture “pays for itself.” Indeed it does.

Even farmers who choose to pay cash up front for solar PV and/or solar thermal hot water heating (e.g., PlexiSun) get all their money back in just a few years – and then enjoy free energy for decades to come. But there are numerous financial options open to farmers who can’t afford that outlay, as well.

And what about wind? Only a small percentage of land is consumed by turbines and the roadways that are required for maintenance access; the rest remains available for crops and livestock. What a fantastic option.

Tagged with: , , ,