Did you know that if every used plastic bottle were to be recycled, we would keep 2 billion tons of plastic out of dump sites? Through simple actions like recycling, using non-toxic products, reducing the use of fossil fuels and using our energy more wisely. We can preserve our environment and save natural energy supplies that are being spent at an alarmingly fast rate. (more…)
2GreenEnergy supporter Gary Tulie Writes: Hi Craig, Following on from your post on Women in the Solar Industry, I thought I would let you know about a local day conference to be held on 7th November. My good friend Mrs. Frances Alexander – former mayor of High Wycombe and leader of The Environment Centre – a local charity promoting sustainability is organising a day conference in High Wycombe on the topic “Can Women Cool It” celebrating the contribution of women to sustainability, and encouraging women to play an active role in solving this critical issue. (I am one of the volunteers who helps in the Centre.)
This is fabulous, Gary. You’re an amazing human being, in case no one’s told you that recently.
Each month, I come across a couple of dozen cleantech business concepts, and, when I refer to some of them as “silly” or some such, I’m sure readers think that perhaps I’m being rash or unfair. OK, check this out: a solar-powered attic fan. The value proposition: pay $700 for the hardware, and God-knows-how-much to pay someone to chop a hole in your roof to install it. Then sit around and pray your roof doesn’t leak as a result. (more…)
I had an interesting conversation yesterday at the Solar Power International show with a young lady whose mission was to ensure that women in the solar industry are accorded the same respect as men. I actually was unaware that this was a huge issue, but I eagerly assented to support her cause, as suggested in the photo here. I noticed that she had another placard that read “I am not a booth babe,” which I presume she would have recommend for my colleague and me had we been female.
Upon reflection, I sadly admit that all trade shows, whether they concern renewable energy or steel blast furnaces, still utilize/exploit pretty girls to attract males’ attention. It’s a regrettable vestige of the sexism that continues to remain in the workplace, and we’ll most certainly be a better society when it’s gone.
I had a terrific discussion with a spokesperson for Abengoa at the Solar Power International show yesterday, from which I walked away quite pleased to learn that CSP (aka solar thermal) is still very much alive and kicking. Abengoa’s approach is a proprietary glass parabolic trough focusing on a tube filled with molten salt. This eliminates the losses associated with transferring heat from another working fluid to molten salt (for energy storage) in a series of heat exchangers. The levelized cost of energy is $0.12 – $0.15 per KWh, almost three times that of PV, but it’s very competitive in islanded applications where the grid cannot be used to absorb off-peak power.
Keep up the good work, guys.
At the recent Solar Power International show. I ran into a spokesperson for NREL, and engaged in a discussion of the most exciting development happening out there in Golden, Colorado. As it turns out, it’s perovskites, especially calcium titanium oxide, CaTiO3.
What’s the big deal here? Actually, there are two aspects of this: (more…)
Those who grew up with the rock/pop of the 1960s will recognize that the title here is a take-off on the song: “(Hey Little Girl) Psychotic Reaction.”
Now that we have that bad pun out of the way, let me explain that protecting the metal poles that are driven into the earth to support ground-mounted PV systems is not a joke at all; in the wrong soil conditions, they can corrode to the point of complete destruction in as few as five years. That’s where the people from Corrpro come in. Imagine that you have a utility-scale PV array that costs $100 million to install; now imagine that you can extend its life another 15 years with an investment of under $2 million. (more…)
I urge you to check out this article called Arctic Tipping Points Can Ripple Around the World and especially its comments. You’ll note that the discussion offers some of the most intense knee-jerk reactions you’ll ever see on the subject of climate change, where people of science debate the denier zombies.
Coincidentally, it’s the 166th birthday of Ivan Pavlov, of salivating dog fame. We’re told when we are young that we shouldn’t argue with crazy people and idiots, yet we are the descendants of the animals; in many ways, we just can’t help ourselves.
By the time this post is published early tomorrow morning, 2GreenEnergy’s young intern Fabio Porcu and I will be on our way to the Solar Power International show in Anaheim (near Los Angeles) California. SPI is the largest solar conference in the U.S., and, if I’m not mistaken, the world—and we intend to see as much of it as possible in our one-day visit, to check out the latest and greatest in everything that is even remotely connected with the subject: building-integrated photovoltaics, concentrated solar power, and so forth.
Anyone in the area who wants to come by and meet us over a cup of coffee is more than welcome; just hit the “contact” button above.
Here’s good news for all you people with lungs. Australia has ousted Tony Abbott (pictured), its extreme right-wing prime minister, and replaced him with Malcolm Turnbull, a gentleman known to be much more in tune with a variety of social issues; he’s a man who is likely to help his country join the 21st Century and work to address our planet’s environmental challenges.
This is a good change in so many ways; most obviously, it’s one fewer fossil fuel puppet / climate change denier at the helm of an important nation. But here’s another way to look at it: it’s less cognitive dissonance (“mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time”) for people all around the globe, who have been wondering how in blazes a country that’s home to so many fun-loving and fair-minded people wound up being led by such a repulsive, hateful reactionary. We’ll probably never know, but now the point is moot; now we can stop speculating, and breathe a little more easily—both figuratively and literally.
